Crossfire: Book One of Sidetrack Series
by Rina K. Fenderson
Summary: Half-human Cal has always been running. Running from death, destruction and whatever else his dark past dredges up. Now he and his half-brother, Niko, are shown there is a being with a past darker and more dangerous than they may be prepared to face.
1. Chapter 1  Cal

**The Usual Disclaimer: **Don't own any character with the exception of the new ones, no profit made except for the gain of writing something I love**.**

**The Author's Disclaimer: **This story takes place after **Roadkill**, but I attempted to keep standing plots intact for **Blackout** to continue after this story. Hope you enjoy**.**

**UPDATE 7/11/12: **No major details have changed in the revisions of this story. Some lines and minor details have been changed throughout several edits. Also, if you enjoyed this story, please try the new sequel just posted called Killswitch.

**Crossfire**

**A Cal Leandros Novel******

**_Cal, half human, half something else, has always been running. Running from death, destruction and whatever else his dark past dredged up. Now he and his half-brother Niko are shown there is a being with a past darker and more dangerous than they my be prepared to face, Its not a job, but a need, and Cal won't rest until it's done. _**

**Chapter One**

**CAL**

There was a times when, despite wishful thinking and convenience and good intentions –not that I ever had many of those– that self preservation finally won out. Surprisingly, it wasn't when the world was ending or guns were blazing. There were many of those times in the past, let me tell you, but even then I'd waited it out in hopes that I could keep this. Should've known better.

I never got to hold on to a good thing for long. The towns Niko and I settled in that weren't half bad we ran from when the Auphe showed their hideous faces. The first girl I'd ever had feelings for that could have very well been love, I had to deny to keep her alive. Every single time the going got good, and those were rare, some thing always gave.

It just wasn't usually in my conscious decision to screw it all up.

Delilah watched me as if she knew. Maybe she did. I didn't usually linger too long after the clothes were put back on. It wasn't wise. Last time I'd been on Kin territory the wolves found out Delilah was boning a creature of the night more evil than them and tried to have me neutered. Funny thing, I'd pretty much done exactly that to the first hydrant-pisser that attacked me. The second wave wasn't even that lucky.

It was beginning to bother me, though. We had a relationship of convenience, something a guy in his mid-twenties certainly wouldn't complain about. It wasn't that she might kill me to gain seniority among the wolf mafia or just when she felt a little peckish after sex that made me pause and reflect. She never promised my safety, just as she tried to shoot one of the few friends that I had to benefit her own plans of grandeur.

That hadn't changed. Not that I expected our road trip to save the world would change anything. But now Delilah was Kin without a pack and all it would take to get back in their good graces would be killing me. Well, maybe more than that, but my head on the family's Thanksgiving dinner table would certainly help. She was a lone wolf sure, liked to take the road less traveled and all that, but she was still Kin and would always be Kin and they weren't keen on leaving loose ends. Besides, she was only a lone wolf because the Kin were still stuck in the fifties with their gender bias. No female would be Alpha; but if that ever changed I knew Delilah would be the first female Alpha.

"You are scared," Delilah commented in that strange exotic voice that sounded more foreign than stuck between human and wolf vocal chords; a side effect of the butt-sniffers trying to breed higher bloodlines. All Wolf all the time was the Kin's motto. They wanted to go back to their fleabag roots and little did they know that the werewolf healer that could –though would never again– fulfill that dream was running around Yellowstone with his All Wolf cousin. The Kin also didn't know that Delilah let him slip through her grasp. But I knew and she knew I knew –yet another reason for her to rip off the half Auphe's head.

"Not scared," I replied. It sounded testy, but anyone who subjected themselves to the ball of sunshine that was me was pretty used to that. "I'm thinking."

"Don't hurt yourself, pretty boy." I scowled at her teasing. The nickname, though not entirely inaccurate by human standards either, was in reference to my battle scars. One of which she healed for me after a homicidal Red Cap took a bite out of my chest as an appetizer.

"Delilah, nothing's going to change between us," Even as I said it aloud it sounded whiny. Like I expected something more from this, more than semi-regular sex with possibly the hottest female that would ever consider sleeping with me. Yeah, I knew this was stupid, but gut instinct and all. It just felt like this relationship's expiration date was neigh and at the end it was obvious one of us would literally _expire_.

Delilah raised her eyebrows then slunk from the center of the bed to the edge where I sat. She was still bare to the world and it was glorious. Toned core, creamy amber-colored breasts, long white blond hair cascading over thin shoulders. Her face gave the illusion of Asian decent with almond-shaped eyes the same glowing amber of her skin and thin sultry lips that shifted into a coy smile. "You want change? New kink?"

"No, that's not," I shook myself to snap out of the purely hormonal trance her body put me in. "Can't we just –stop it." She frowned at the admonishment for her nails scratching over my back and growled when I stood from the bed. I ignored the feral sound. "Things aren't changing. We fight like cats and d—" I stopped myself, not sure why since I usually let the insults fly regardless to who I was talking to, but I didn't really want to start our fourth argument of the day. "We're fighting as much as were fucking, it isn't…" I paused again, hoping to gather thoughts out of thin air. Even I didn't know what I was trying to say anymore.

"We're always going to wonder when the other is going to go for the throat," I finished lamely and dropped my arms to my sides.

Delilah continued to smile, sliding her long legs over the edge of the bed and getting up in a slow manner than had me further forget what I was saying. "Makes it fun. Dangerous." She approached me with a look that could melt off clothes. At the moment, I didn't think I would mind if it did. She tangled fingers in my tee shirt and pulled me against her nearly perfect body; the only discolorations being the artistic tattoo of wolf eyes that strung along her neck and the nasty scars on her abdomen that made her barren and therefore a perfect girl for me. "This not fun?"

"I like you. I like having sex with you, but how far does that go? If the Kin offer you an Alpha position if you kill me, you'd kill me. I know this. You wouldn't even try to find another way."

"I might." It was said simply. As if should the mood suit her she'd think about it and if she found an alternative she'd try it. It was honest, but without trust and trust was necessary when you live life on the run and with only your big brother protecting your back. I sighed and indulged myself by running a hand over her warm body.

"I don't want to kill you," I said firmly. She knew well that didn't mean I wouldn't. For years it had been me and Niko, no other baggage, no other concerns but each other. That had changed in recently, but that also didn't change the fact that I knew I could never leave Nik alone. I'd seen what my brother became when he had thought I'd been murdered. I knew what lengths he could go to for vengeance and I didn't want him to ever go through that again.

"You are trying to say no more," Delilah sighed over my collarbone before nipping it. "Pointless words. My body is like addiction. Can't quit me."

I clasped her shoulders and pulled her back to arm's length. "Then I go cold turkey. I'm done fighting with you and God knows I will miss the sex." Oh, how I would miss the sex. "You accepted me, never feared me, and you've…'taught' me so much, but—"

Delilah shoved me against the wall, pinning me there with her body. "One more ride. Then we see how long it takes for you come back to me." And how could I argue? Of course that one last ride caused me to dangerously cut my escape out of there close. If the Kin found out that Delilah was _still_ sleeping with me…ah, who was I kidding? I couldn't care less if the Kin knew and Delilah obviously felt the same way, or she figured if I couldn't defend myself against them I was a waste of space. She'd already set her pack on me in Yellowstone, though she claimed it was because she knew I could handle them and if I couldn't she'd finish the job and still be a free lone wolf.

Yeah, things were looking up for Delilah, but me? I had a pissed off brother to come home to four hours after I promised to be home.

It was never a good thing when your big brother was sharpening the nicks out of a twenty-eight inch blade on your living room couch when you came in. I tried for the casual entrance, a brief wave and a quick duck down the hall to my room. It didn't work, it never worked.

"Cal," Niko said in that tone. He had a lot of tones and most of the time I could tell what he wanted from one word. He, on the other hand, rarely needed words. He could read me like a Dick and Jane book from just the way I stood. This tone was firm, but concerned. Not what I was expecting coming in with the sun rising in the frame of the windows. He eyed me for a moment or two as I shifted to stand in the threshold between the kitchen and the hallway.

Strange thing, genetics were. Niko was all Romani; Roman nose, olive skin. His hair was a dark blond in a braid that fell over his shoulder and his eyes stark gray, both of which came from the Vayash tribe that mixed with our European brothers, but otherwise he was Rom. And me? Sure, I had the dark hair, but that about summed up my gypsy heritage. I was paler than the vampires of fabled cinema, and most of my features were handsome but weren't really identifiers. Where I was lazy as shit, Niko was ambitious. Where I was dumb, or rather too lazy to pick up a book, Niko was scholarly. Polar opposites with only a pair of matching gray eyes to give any indication we were brothers. Physically, at least.

"Hey." It wasn't much to break the silence, but I wasn't sure which of my many vices Nik was going to lecture me about. My room being a mess, the laundry not being done, the dishes left in the sink, the fact that I was out all night sleeping with a werewolf that might kill me in my thoroughly exhausted sleep, or that I missed the morning run.

"You want to talk about it?" I let off a short laugh through my nose. Should have known Niko would sense what happened the moment I walked into the door. The pain in my ass/savior was more supernatural than half of the monsters we fought and he was the only one among our circle of friends that could claim the title of human.

"No."

Nik stared for another moment, then shifted his attention back to the sword resting on his thighs.

"If you're going to take a shower you might as well wait."

I groaned. Apparently, I didn't miss the morning run. I started to complain. I mean, come on, I just got six hours of exercise why did I need a five mile run? Niko didn't wait for the whine to form into words though, he just swiped the bledstone over the blade pointedly. "And pick up your clothes, you lazy bastard."

I almost smiled at that, almost. "You got it, Cyrano."

By the time I got through the painful jog through Central Park and a shower set to massage to pound out all the aches, I was starving. Surprising that hadn't happened sooner. Nik already had breakfast out for me. Seemed he felt bad for me breaking it off with Delilah for the greater good, because it was sunny side up eggs and bacon instead of egg whites and whole wheat cardboard. He didn't ask and I didn't discuss. I left her apartment confused and convinced that I hadn't actually gotten my point across. I was determined not to go back to Delilah, but I doubted she would honor that request. If she got a hankering for Auphe, she'd find me.

Scarfing down every scrap of the meal was my thanks to Nik and he needed no more than that. He even did the dishes without scolding me for leaving them in the sink and dropping onto the couch to watch television. I had to take advantage of these moment; usually, I had to die or almost die to get this kind of pampering.

"You working tonight?"

I grunted an affirmative. Work was bartending at a bar called the Ninth Circle. Owned by a temperamental peri, who was currently holed up with a puck. Talk about an odd couple. Peris, thought to be angels or decedents of, were all for that pure and righteous path and then there was Robin Goodfellow. Spend more than a few seconds with him and you'd hear more stories of sexual exploitation and benders than physically possible. He was also a car salesman and if that wasn't the opposite of pure and righteous I didn't know what was. He was a friend though, stuck with us through near-death situations that we never thought he would. It was very un-puck like, but so was being exclusive with a peri.

Ishiah hadn't been around as of late and neither had Robin, so as assumptions went I had a pretty good one. Ishiah was my boss though, which made it extra annoying. Without him there I had to listen to Efferih attempt to order me around. Not sure when he showed up, but it had to have been within the weeks Nik, Robin, and I road-tripped it out to stop an anti-healer trying to kill the world with super-Ebola goodness. I'd also taken a few more weeks off to adjust.

That adventure had ended in my almost death as most of them did, but this time I was also coming off an Auphe addiction. Traveling…damn, did I hate to admit I missed it. Of course, now my power had a safety lock. No ripping open space portals to get to work on time for me anymore. Not unless I wanted my heart to blast from my chest like a c-4 explosive. Then again the alternative was me gleefully murdering all of those near and dear to me….

Right, thanks for that, dad.

"You seemed more contemplative and less dawn of the dead zombie today," Niko hedged. He even eased into the arm chair next to the couch to catch my attention.

"Nostalgic moment. It's gone now." I offered him a sly grin. "So when did you come home last night?" He wasn't the only one who could be insightful. Niko was always a little less tightly wound after he spent time with Promise. At least, one of us could have a functional relationship. If you could call a human dating a century old vampire functional. Well, Promise used science and medication to curb her need for blood, so yeah, I'd say they were functional. Good enough.

Niko frowned for the intrusion on his business, but answer nonetheless since that what us brothers did. No lies between us. Maybe not whole truths, but no lies. "Earlier than you by several hours. Rewarding me with the luxury of sleep."

"Bull, you didn't sleep," I argued. He couldn't when I wasn't there. And if he did he had nightmares about my gruesome death fifty times over. I hated it, but the only way to stop it was me being here, present and accounted for. I slouched in the worn couch cushions and flipped to the next channel. "Remember when things were simple and filled with ketchup packets and crackers for dinner while our whore mother screamed at us in a drunken stupor?"

Nik's mouth twitched in one corner; his version of a smile. Apparently, the comment assured him I was fine and he stood from the chair, batting my head sharply. "I didn't sleep then either."

I grimaced as I watched him retreat into his bedroom. He probably had to get ready for his own job as TA at the local college a few stops from us. I was glad he kept that up. Too many times he sacrificed living his own life for maintaining mine.

Nik had raised me. No other way to put it. He raised me, saved me, protected me, loved me…the list went on and most of the time I didn't really deserve half of it. While I was watching cartoons in ignorant bliss, he was watching the kitchen window in fear of my other half of the family tree. Monsters were real, oh how well we knew that now. "I'll be back tonight after closing," I called to Nik. "I promise."

I ended up late to work by five minutes for no particular reason other than my aspirations to never show up on time. It was amusing how Ishiah always seemed annoyed even if it was commonplace now. This time it was Efferih that stated the obvious, "You're late," when I ducked under the bar gate. I snorted at him and readjusted my jacket over the Glock holstered underneath. Swords and blades were Niko's thing and I had no chance of ever challenging that title. Not that I couldn't use one in a pinch, but I preferred the more permanent bullet to the head that worked with a little more than fifty percent of monsters and assholes.

Efferih eyed it with scorn, then eyed me with an insurmountable amount of venom. He wasn't even a particularly intimidating peri, almost gangly compared to the bulk of our boss and many of the other peri that worked at the bar. A cropped fuzz of brown hair and beady brown eyes too close together on a square jawed face. It made me laugh when he tried to bully me. Peris weren't too fond of my kind; must be the whole murderously evil thing. To be fair, no being on earth was very fond of the Auphe. Good thing I was the only one left alive.

"What?" I grinned and pivoted around the newbee to get toward the center of the bar. I was pretty certain that Efferih was some sort of family member indebted to Ishiah for one reason or another, otherwise I didn't know what bet he lost to have to babysit the bar with me.

"Would you like to continue this glaring contest or should I get to work?" I offered. The constant contempt did grate after a while. I got used to it most of the time. The side-long looks of fear or fury. Some, like Wolves, turned their noses up at one whiff of the murderous concoction that was my genetic make up. Some, like Wolves again, saw some sort challenge in trying to kill me. Some just knew what I was and those bastards never appreciated my dashing good looks and superb wit. And those that didn't know assumed I was human which made me either food, entertainment, or wasted space.

"Get to work," Efferih grouched and moved off down the bar to speak to some patrons he felt more deserving of his presence. Samyael approached from behind me, patted me on the back and dropped a large black bag of trash in front of me. Or maybe Efferih was from Samyael's blood line. They both had the dark brown hair and close set brown eyes -granted Sammy's looked far more natural that Effie's. I would not have even been surprised if Efferih kept his hair short because it was as curly as Samyael's.

Sammy didn't say anything, but the brief touch was more than he normally offered. When Cambriel was killed by the Auphe because of me, my standing among my peri co-workers went to rock bottom for fear alone. It'd been a while since they'd even been able to stand beside me, so actually making contact was a big step. I sighed and hoisted the bag over my shoulder to take it out back. The bar had opened only a half hour ago and they certainly didn't need me with this thin a crowd.

Entering the hall that led to the storage area and the back office was an entirely different thing though. Several voices were arguing on top of each other like a heated debate on Judge Judy. Well, a heated debate from a foreign country because I certainly didn't understand a word of it. I assumed it was the peris' language, which none of them had ever really spoken in front of me, but peeking around the opened door I could see several of them all with their wings out in rage and all gesticulating in each other's faces.

Apparently, Ishiah had come to work tonight if only to have a secret meeting of feathers in his office. The three peris with my boss looked enough like him that I decided they were probably family. It was a peri family reunion all around. All these guys had tall, wrestle-mania built bodies. They had the pale gold hair with eyebrows just a shade or two too dark, and all of them wore that haughty peri scowl that spoke out loud just how much better/virtuous they thought they were compared to you.

Ishiah's eyes, currently flashing amber-gold, caught mine and the glare worsened. "Cal, go." I decided not to argue, not with three other peris that would probably jump at the chance to rid the world of the last Auphe in that room. I could probably take one of them out with my Glock, but not the other two before Niko became an only child. Peris might be squares moralistically, but they had the devil's temper and the strength and sword fighting skills to back it up. I turned around the continued down the hall as they ramped back into biting each other's heads off.

While the main bar of the Ninth Circle was immaculate and full of life in the form of indoor trees and birds nesting in said trees (so I guess immaculate save for the occasional bird shit splat), the back of the Ninth was spartan. No knick knacks or motivational posters, just dry wall and an employee bathroom that never got cleaned when it was my turn. The door to the back alley was heavy iron and once painted green, though that had chipped off considerably over time. There were also three deep gashes renting the lower portion of the door; a calling card left by the Auphe, no doubt.

I shoved it open, holding it ajar with the heel of one boot as I chucked the plastic bag overhead into the large trash bin and promptly froze when I felt I wasn't alone. It wasn't a sensation I got often, or at least before my brother. Out of habit my hand went to the gun holstered under my arm, but the shadowed figure didn't so much as flinch at the motion. "Hey."

I paused, back straight, and let the heavy door clip shut behind me; thankfully it wasn't the kind that automatically locked. The girl, or woman –in this light I wasn't quite sure and either could be more or less as deadly as the other given the right species– watched me with a small smile. The glowing embers of a cigarette in her hand gave off about as much light as the dying flood light behind the bar. Just enough for me to tell that she looked human, was rather cute, and didn't seem at all disquieted that I was there ready to pull a gun on her.

"Hi." I replied lamely, glanced back at the closed door. I doubted she'd randomly come down the back alley to this exit, which meant she'd come from the bar. And this bar could get rather rowdy sometimes. I eased my hand off my gun. She could still be foe; something inside my gut was tugging, but I couldn't figure out which way. "You all right?"

It was temperate out; summer wasn't as viciously sweltering as it had been during our road trip out west. Of course, it was nearing the end of September so cooler temperature would take over Manhattan any day; it was odd that it hadn't already. She was slightly huddled in her tank top and jeans and it seem pretty slasher-film-esque for a young girl to be sitting on rotting palettes in the middle of the night behind a peri bar on a strip of rather a tough neighborhood.

She gave me another little smile, very cute since her lips had a bit of pout to them, and nodded. "Fine. Are they done the bitch-fest in there?"

And race revealed; if she was referring to the chicken fight inside then in all likelihood she was peri as well. She looked like she had dark blond hair, eyebrows a little darker, but her features weren't long like the rest of Ishiah's clan. A round face, with a little pointed chin and a button nose. She was, in a word, adorable. "Still at it."

She sighed at my answer and took a slow drag off her cigarette. A bit of an odd sight. Peris were normally goodie-two-shoes on vices and sins; don't drink, don't smoke, don't have promiscuous sex. They really took the fun out of life and had those tempers that could put the Hulk to shame. Ishiah was like a priest behind the bar sometimes, but probably not looked too highly upon by his cousins since he owned one. That and he was currently boning a puck. Maybe that was what all the arguing was about.

As if to prove my internal musings a loud crash resonated through the back door and into alley. The girl's dark eyes flickered toward it with a rather weary expression and she sighed out her drag. "Still at it. Clearly."

"Throw some cats and dogs in there and it'd be a pet shop riot." The comment came out before I realized it might insult her as did the image of Delilah, Ishiah, and Robin's mummy cat Salome in a cage match. Wasn't too sure who would win that one, but my bets would be on Salome. The girl laughed though, a musical sound. Not in a bubbly pop way, but more sinister, or rather almost sultry. I watched her for a moment, then jutted a thumb at the door. "What's that about?"

"Me," she answered honestly. "My existence and how most of the peris wish it were non."

I shifted on me feet. I was supposed to be inside working the bar, but I truly was never one for honest labor and any information I could get on Ishiah that wasn't his puck boyfriend's dirty bedroom tales was a bonus for me. It was great getting dirt on your boss, especially one as guarded as mine. And I still couldn't figure out which way my instincts were taking me. She didn't smell like a threat, not human but not the cold sting or metallic warning of most predators' scents. She actually smelled pretty good and considering the stink of alley and trash around me, that fact that I could smell her perfume at all was surprising.

I moved down the concrete blocks that served as steps to the uneven alley floor. "I can relate."

"I'm sure you can, little lamb." Her tone had that same coyness that didn't match her doe-eyes at all. It was sexy though, I wasn't going to deny that. And call me a tool or an idiot or a glutton for punishment for flirting with another woman right after breaking it off with the previous, but I was intrigued. She didn't seem very peri at all and if they wanted her dead, she'd obviously done something very naughty.

"Little lamb?" I laughed. Most powerful species considered humans nothing more than that. Sheep, lambs. "I'm not human."

That smile slipped over her features again and I decided I really liked it. "Not entirely."

I shook my head, unable to not smirk with her. I didn't realize peris could sense an Auphe right off; it made me wonder why Ishiah even served me a drink the first time I came into the bar with Robin. "Who are you anyway?"

"Cassie, niece of the four idiots bickering like ruffled roosters in the office."

"Niece? Of Ishiah?" So those _were _his brothers in there.

"Sure, he has two hundred and eighty some of us." I just stared for a moment, probably looking baffled by this. Cassie laughed again. "You do know how old he is, right? How old most of us are?" I nodded; I didn't but I had a round about number that reached a few tens of thousands. So I guess it made sense that he'd have a shit ton of descendants. He just never seemed like a family man.

"I thought peris were one-mate kind of people?"

"They are, but female peris also lay eggs, so it's more a litter. Several litters over many, many years. We don't pop them out as often as humans, but it still adds up."

"Wow." I eased down on the palette beside her, when it was obvious she didn't mind the company and I didn't mind avoiding work. Beside the fact that her perfume was really interesting. I couldn't place it, but I liked it. "So you probably have like fifty siblings." I had enough trouble with just one.

"No. Just me." Cassie's tone slipped into something darker at those words. It still had a lackadaisical music to it, but harsher. "My mother was young, died after having one brood, and I was the only one that survived."

I waited, but that was all she had to say. "That's not why they hate you, is it?"

"It is. Part of it," Cassie sighed and dropped her cigarette to the alley floor, crushing it with a worn sneaker. The door creaked open before she could continue and now Samyael was scowling at me. Why was everyone so grouchy tonight?

"Does it really take you so long to take out one bag of trash?"

I pushed off the palette with a roll of my eyes and trudged off to serve the scum of Manhattan. "Hey, little lamb." I turned back at the door; Samyael had already ducked back down the hall which could only mean we were picking up inside. Cassie's sly smile had returned, dark eyes hooded. "Watch yourself. Wolves like to bite."

And I wasn't sure what to say to that; she must have smelled Delilah on me or maybe heard that the Kin wanted me dead. I just responded with a chuckle. Unfortunately, it sounded strained. I slipped back into the hall just as Ishiah and his brothers were exiting the office. By their faces, the issue wasn't resolved but a temporary compromise might have been placed. Ishiah eyed me as I strolled past, but didn't speak, so I kept going. Dragging my feet through the work night, I tried to sneak out back again right before closing, but Cassie was gone. So I packed it up and headed home; determined to make good on my promise to Niko tonight.


	2. Chapter 2 Cal

**CHAPTER TWO**

**CAL**

When we were younger, Niko had this one book he carried with him everywhere. And even though I was around ten and fully capable of observation at that age I don't remember what it was called or even what it was about. I just remember it being blue with flaking gold lettering. I'm sure it was incinerated with the rest of our things and our mother the night the Auphe came for me. Maybe he got another copy, who knew?

I just remembered he was reading it the night I saw my first horror movie. The Omen, I think. And of all the things to be frightened of: evil, scary children, dead bodies...I was scared of the dogs. I think my incident with that crazy mutt Hammer way back when helped with that. I woke up when our trailer park neighbor's Chihuahua started yapping in the middle of the night. I nearly pissed myself. Over a Chihuahua. How I survived half the horrifying things I'd seen since then I don't even know.

I bolted out of bed and swore I saw a pair of glowing red eyes outside my window. The hell hounds were coming to get my prepubescent ass; vicious Dobermans with drool and bloodlust. I know now I wasn't too far off. It was probably daddy dearest at the window, though. No black Doberman fur, but the drool and the bloodlust, sure.

I scampered out of the room like that neighbor's pathetic Chihuahua and slipped into the living area/dining room where my brother was still up reading by candlelight. The electricity was out again –I never did see the end of that movie because of it– and our mother was probably out whoring or conning tourists out of cash to get it back on so she could chill her vodka just the way she liked it. Nik took one look at me and knew. Knew what I saw, knew it was real. He dropped the book to the couch, stood up and wrapped me in his arms. And I shook like a little baby, because I knew then. I knew the creatures under the bed were real, I knew that the reason our mother named me Caliban after Shakespeare's monster was because I was part monster too. Some things never changed.

Because here I was standing in the doorway to my big brother's room, drenched in a cold sweat and trying to shake off the nightmares far worse than a snarling Doberman at your heels. And here Niko was sitting on his bed with a book splayed over his knees and his eyes set on me. Difference was, now the dreams were memories. Memories I repressed to the deepest parts of my mind. I didn't want to know what happened to me in Tumulus the two years I'd been lost. I didn't want to know what the Auphe did to me to get me a little more than half crazed and homicidal when I came back through the gate and into Nik's arms only two days -Earth time- after I left. My brain obviously wanted me to know though, and kept giving me hints.

The feel of cold stone under my naked and bruised body. The scent of the Auphe all around me. Hearing their voices –as Robin described it– like glass slicing through my eardrums. The sensation of opening a gate, almost opening a gate, almost getting free and failing, failing, failing. It made me sick every time; scared, despite the fact that there were no more Auphe to take me there. And this time I heard a voice screaming at me in English, in Auphe. "Who's waiting for you?" it demanded in conjunction with the memory of pain. It was a female voice, definitely female and pissed off. I'd never heard that before. Another puzzle piece or my head just tossing some every day events into my subconscious? I stubbed my toe on my way to work, that caused pain and maybe I overheard some chick demanding to know if her boyfriend was expecting another date. I knew my reply though, I knew what my reply to that was even if it wasn't asked of me, even if I didn't know if it was ever spoken.

"Niko," I said it now and my brother rested his hands on the book.

"Cal, it's okay. They can't get to you now."

I nodded, but didn't feel soothed at all. Every time I'd believed us in the clear, that we out ran them or got away...it'd been a lie. We had thought we'd killed them when we dropped a warehouse on the majority of their dwindling species, but they came back. Like fucking cockroaches. So yeah, we nuked their world when there were only eighteen females left, all vying for the chance to drag me to hell as a breeding stallion, but what if there were more than eighteen, what if the relieving sensation of them all blinking out of existence was just another ploy for them to make me think I was getting my way?

"Cal, no," Niko countered. See? Like a Dick and Jane book. He stood from his bed and crossed the room. A room that, I might add, was probably a third the size of our entire trailer when we were kids. We were living better now. Always had electricity, always had food and running water. Better off right? Nik grabbed one of my arms and shook me. "Stop it. I know you can't stop the nightmares, but trust me. It's over. The Auphe can't get you now. They're dead."

"We thought that last time."

"We assumed that last time. This time we know for sure. And if any of them did survive we will kill them. I won't let them take you again, you know this." He shook my arm again. "You know this."

I nodded, this time agreeing. Niko would protect me, even if it was from myself. "Now are you going to go back to sleep in your own room or do you need some footy pajamas and a sippy cup?" I glared at my brother. I was old enough –only two years younger than Niko now after time screwed things up in Tumulus– that I didn't need a coddling, but sometimes I did miss those hugs.

"Screw you, Cyrano," I grumbled and turned around to get some water and go back to bed. The voice was probably nothing more than something I heard on TV or on the street. That's what dreams were right? They weren't always twisted memories of when you were tortured by your dad's side of the family or when your brother, the only relative that ever meant something, almost died in a car accident, or in a car explosion, or when you were possessed and shot him in the chest...some dreams were just dreams, right? Just a hodgepodge of events and places and people that you encountered that day.

Yeah, what I wouldn't give for those.

I somehow managed to get back to sleep dream-free only to be woken up from a wet willie. I responded with the bowie knife hidden under my pillow. Robin caught my wrist before I sliced his jaw clean off and grinned. "Good morning."

"Damn it, Loman, don't touch me with that I don't know where it's been."

"I could tell you." Nicknamed Loman when Nik and I first met him due to the fact that he was a car salesman; all the awards he had hanging up in his dealership office didn't change my inaccurate reference. Besides no one could be anything but delusional to want that job. Robin Goodfellow pried the knife from my hand and tucked it back under the pillow. "With great detail and relish."

I glared at him and sat up on the bed. "A world of no. What the hell are you doing here anyway?" Goodfellow hadn't been around much lately. Not since he'd started his path to monogamy with Ishiah. Previously he hung out with us out of boredom, loneliness, and because Niko reminded him of Ishiah which meant he wanted to mount my brother. Amusing to me only because I knew Niko could hold his own even against a skilled fighter like Robin.

"What? I can't bless my friends with my glorious and multi-talented presence?"

I chucked the bowie at him, but he just dodged, and laughed as he walked out of my bedroom. "Too early? My majesty can be blinding first thing. Even Romulus basked in my magnificence and asked me to rule Rome. I declined of course, not that I wouldn't have been a superb king. " At least he was saying it as he left. I dropped my head back to my pillow, groaning out my frustration.

"Cal, get up," Nik called as he passed my open door.

"Make me."

And that was about the dumbest thing to say half-asleep. I was sitting at the kitchen table nursing a sore jaw, a bruised pride, and a cup of coffee ten minutes later. Robin sat across from me with another cup –we actually had a matching set of coffee cups now, we were growing up so fast. He prattled on and on about his brilliance and other equally ludicrous things and Nik and I ignored him, which is what we did when he didn't have anything useful to say. We knew when he was serious, by now. Knew when he needed us and when he was just bored. The latter would probably get worse if Ishiah continued cutting Robin off as it seemed he had. A puck without release was like starving a rabid dog. And damn it, back to the freakin' Dobermans.

"Why are you here?" I asked with a drawn out groan when Goodfellow paused to drink.

"I'm bored," he confessed with simplicity and a charming smile. "Ishiah's busy with family stuff and I don't like to be in the same building let alone the same room when his brothers come to town. Bigoted, self-serving, twats."

I lifted my eyebrows, replenishing my hit points with the bold roast Nik had brewed for me and Robin. "Wouldn't they be dicks?"

"They'd have to have balls then." Robin countered. The mere fact that he didn't say anymore than that was pretty telling. He did _not_ like Ishiah's brothers and my guess was that the puck and peri's atypical relationship had something to do with that animosity. "So," he asked brightly, glancing between me and Niko, who had finished making his nasty morning shake that looked like green baby puke. "What's on the agenda for the day?"

"Work," Nik answered.

"Soaps," I added to the list.

My brother shot me a dirty look. "Laundry," he scolded. "Then work. And you're running with me again. You need to be able to go long distance without vomiting."

"It was twenty miles. If you were human you'd have vomited too!"

"I am human."

I snorted and Robin agreed with a sharp laugh. Niko was human, genetics couldn't deny that, but he was faster than most, stronger than most, a killing machine filled with wheat grass and vitamins. I was half murderous creature of a different realm and he could kick my ass two ways to Sunday. Robin had been a fighter for several hundred millennia and Niko probably could take him out given the right situation.

"I'll skip the running; I prefer my sweat to be christening sheets instead of pavement. Especially the pavement around here, all those cracks and crumbling mortar. It chafes and you find dust and concrete powder in the most unusual places. But the soaps sound good," Robin claimed. I wished I could join him, but it was another decathlon through the park for me. Nik had let me sleep in it seemed, because the sun was actually out when we got there, chasing away the dew in the grass and ramping the temperature up to cool instead of chilly. Sweat still drenched me by the third mile, but I was keeping up. Supposed these morning runs did help, but they weren't the serene meditation Niko made them out to be. My mind normally whirled with thoughts best left alone. Like my recent irrational fear that the Auphe weren't as dead as I assumed. Or how I really wanted to go see Delilah after work tonight. Oh, what I wouldn't give to touch those supple—

"Little lamb?"

I slowed at that coy tone and glanced around. Due to the later than usual (for Nik) hour, Battery Park was moderately occupied. The strollers and dogs catching Frisbees hadn't come out yet, but there were plenty of other joggers and business folk having their morning coffee on the park benches. On one of those benches was Cassie. Still in jeans and a tank, with a hoodie zipped up to ward off the morning dew. She had a to-go cup of coffee in one hand and another lit cigarette in the other.

Niko jogged on, lost in meditation or just not realizing that call was for me. I let him, slowing to a stop in front of Ishiah's niece and dropping my hands to my knees to catch my breath. "Cassie, hey. What are you doing out here so early?"

She let off a little hum, dark eyes casting toward the sun. I could see her much better in this light and adorable still fit very well. She wasn't the exotic beauty that Delilah was, didn't hold that pristine elegance that Promise had, but there was still a grace about her and her smile charmed me where Robin's never could –not that he ever tried with me, I think the Auphe thing deterred him. One plus for being inhuman evil incarnate.

"I have this new desire to see as many sunrises as I can," she told me. "I missed them when they were gone."

"Gone?" Her eyes were brown. I could see that now. A very dark shade of red mahogany. Like an artist had mixed all the crimson and plain brown on their palette to make an alluring and intense shade. Her hair was an equally variant combination of ginger brown, auburn, and spun gold that gave it that dark blond look. She had it in two long braids today that trailed down the front of her hoodie to her hips. She reminded me a little of Georgina, my first real crush, in the way that not everyone would think her physically beautiful, but no one could deny her that beauty of essence.

I shook my head, wondering where the hell that poetic shit came from. Nik was at my side before I could further question her about where she'd been that she hadn't seen the sun. He strolled up with a cautious eye on Cassie. "Cal, we still have two more miles and I'd like to shower before I go to work."

"Don't let me hold you back," I teased, hoping he would take the suggestion and actually run with it. No such luck. He remained, watching Cassie as if she were going to pull a knife on me. And Cassie watched us; the picture of innocence. "Cassie, this is my brother, Niko. Nik, this is Ishiah's niece, Cassie."

Niko showed a moment of surprise, which he quickly hid and glanced at me for further explanation. How did I know her and why didn't I tell him about her? "I met her last night at the bar," I told him.

"Ah, yes well, we heard Ishiah has some family in town."

Cassie nodded, for once she didn't look coyly amused. "Hence why I'm as far away from that reunion as possible."

"'Cassie', that's not a typical Cheris Clan name." Niko went on, followed by _my_ moment of confusion. I supposed it made sense for peris to have clans, but I didn't know Ishiah's clan name and I worked with the damned cockatoo. It made me wonder if Cambriel had been from a different clan, or Samyael. Ish seemed like an open-minded guy, I could see him mixing with other clans without a thought. He hired a half Auphe and was dating a puck after all. Or maybe the peri clans mixed often.

"My full name is Castiella," Cassie replied.

"That's pretty," I said before thinking. Word vomit was common with me, but it was usually insults and complaints that ran freely, not complements. Niko eyed me curiously. "So two more miles, we should probably get to that." I honestly didn't know what I was saying anymore, but I wanted to get the hell out of here before I blushed noticeably.

"You two run here every morning?" Niko affirmed, while I avoided eye contact. "Do you mind if I join you tomorrow? I could use the exercise and running by yourself is just boring." Silence answered her and I felt my stomach flip within. Those pesky thoughts I wasn't supposed to be having returned. Wondering if she had a solid body under those jeans. What it would look like running font of me. She was skinny and petite, but was she firm? "You mind..."

"No," I jumped in. Niko was looking at me like I was certifiably insane now.

Cassie wrapped her fingers around the coffee cup and pouted. Damn, her lips were so full and— "No, it's a trust thing I can tell. I don't want to intrude."

"It's not. It's fine," I stopped talking then, realizing everything that was coming out of my mouth was crazy talk. It _was_ a trust thing. We didn't know her. We didn't let people in without testing out boundaries and figuring out what their angle was. Promise's daughter had skated past that step and it led to disaster and Niko chopping off her head. But Cassie had the most sever magnetism and I still said; "Running tomorrow. We'll meet here." Then I ran like a little pussy. I ran like those devil Dobermans were chasing me.

It took nothing for Niko to catch up and he didn't say anything until we finished the next two miles. Even then it was just a smile, well his version of a smile which was just one side of his mouth twisting up. "What?" I demanded. I was glad the run made me flushed all over, it could hide the fact that I was still blushing. Me, blushing. That never fucking happened. I never thought it was even possible once I passed ten.

"Nothing," Nik replied, then chuckled –actually chuckled. "I think it's good. A peri. Maybe she'll rub some good habits off on you." Yeah, Nik never did like Delilah much. Or rather, he didn't like me sleeping with her due solely to the fact that she might kill me any moment.

"Yeah, like smoking. That's a good habit, right?"

Niko slapped me over the back of the head for that, sending a few beads of sweat to the pavement. "Come on. I'm going to be late."

Niko wasn't late, but he did have to rush a little which made it impossible for him to tell Robin about my regression to a crushing pre-teen. I wasn't very good with women to begin with. I teased Georgina like a grade schooler, I pretty much hired Robin to help me lose my virginity with a wood nymph the puck had probably paid off, and I let Delilah take the lead following her like a puppy starved for attention. And yeah, that was the extent of my relationship experience.

I certainly didn't offer any of this information up to Goodfellow as he watch television and I messily folded clean laundry for the rest of the afternoon (who in this world knew how to fold that bottom bed sheet?). I knew well Goodfellow would tease me mercilessly and I didn't need that right now. I was beating myself up enough as it was. What was I thinking? She might have been Ishiah's niece, but we still didn't know everything about Ish either. Granted, if she did attack while we were running, we were already running.

Not that it mattered. Cassie wasn't there the next morning or the morning after, the same all week. And while he was enjoying my sudden cooperation with my exercise routine, Nik was beginning to look at me with concern. "Why?" He asked me while I took a break, sweating on a park bench, before we headed home. He didn't have to expand on the question due to the fact that I knew his flickering gaze toward me had been his hint that I was acting out of sorts and we both knew the distraction and anticipation was coming from our encounter with Cassie last week. He didn't like me distracted. It normally led to him having to save me from some bone-headed or hot-headed move. Plus it was an insult to his training.

Why, he asked. Why her? What made her special? Why was I letting it get to me? Unfortunately, these were all questions I was asking myself. I shook my head. "No idea. Maybe she put a spell on me." Nik snorted and ruffled my hair, signaling for us to leave. Of all the things we'd seen and killed, magic was still laughable. Didn't exist, until someone surprised me and proved me wrong, like zombies. Higher planes of existence and mental powers like clairvoyance and telekinesis, I'd give you, but hexes and spells...bullshit.

"I don't know what it is, Nik," I confessed as we walked back to the subway. "It's just something in my gut. Part of me hopes I never see her again and the rest of me can't wait." I stopped myself and swiped the water bottle from my brother's grasp. He let me have it, else I would have come back empty handed. "I'm crazy, aren't I?"

Niko glared at me for that comment. He would never tell me I was crazy, just like he would never admit that I was a danger to him and the world. Being half Auphe, half human made me unstable and he (and several others) had seen what losing to the Auphe gene could do to me. Still he refused to admit that I was a monster. Refused to call me by my full name because of that. I was his little brother, always would be and nothing would change that.

"You're human, Cal." Partially human, but he wouldn't say that either. "Humans have unexplainable emotions, there's nothing wrong with that. If anything it should assure you."

Assure me that I was still human. Sure, right. I would just let him keep believing that. And just to reaffirm that I was the same old me, I slept in the next day, weaseled out of the morning run, and left the dishes dirty in the sink. I went to work late, pissed off several customers, and went to see Delilah before my shift was over. I was human all right, weak willed and controlled by primitive needs. But that was okay, because things were returning to normal again. And I could deal with that.


	3. Chapter 3 Cal

**CHAPTER THREE**

**CAL**

Promise was with Niko in the kitchen when I got home around two in the morning. It was the third night that week that I'd snuck into Kin territory to see Delilah. Man, I was pathetic. Nik gave me a scolding look, but didn't say anything. He already told me I was an adult now and I had to make my own choices and deal with the consequences. So far my decision making skills were lacking. "We got a job, or is this a personal visit?"

Promise smiled; a clever, elegant expression that accentuated her unflappable calm and made her sexy enough that it wasn't a surprise she could land pretty much any guy she set her sights on. And her sights had been on my brother for long enough that even he finally gave in to her charms.

"Can't it be both?" She brushed a hand over my arm in greeting when I approached them and I kissed her cheek. I wasn't affectionate with many, but Promise was my big brother's girlfriend and I wanted to show them both that I was okay with this. More than okay. I liked Promise she was a damned near perfect match for Niko. Plus she was rich after inheriting estates from her four late husbands, which meant if our little business ever went sour and we couldn't pay the medical bills she would be our sugar momma.

Outside of my job at the Ninth Circle and Nik's stint TA-ing at the local college we ran our own business that Promise partnered with us and Robin aided in when the extra skill when necessary or when he was just bored. Niko called it the Preternatural Private Detective agency. In short we were guns for supernatural hire. We killed the baddies in the dark for a price. Our last job, which led to the road trip to Yellowstone and my near death experiences –yes, there were multiple experiences– had bought in enough of a purse that we were still living very comfortably. It was a new and fascinating thing for us, considering where Nik and I came from and what we'd endured. But a job was a job and we could always use some cash, even if it was to put away for desperate times.

"What's the job?"

"A friend of mine bought the Overpeck Golf Course in Teaneck a few years back and renovated it completely. One of the renovations involved several new rivers and lakes. Unfortunately, one of the river systems connects to a larger natural river and with it came three Nixie that have been picking off caddies and greens-keepers faster than they can hire them," Promise explained. I knew Nixie were female Nix, often mistaken for mermaids, but generally they weren't that different. The tale of the little mermaid was right in the fact that those bitches like to sit on rocks and sing beautiful songs, but the purpose is to lure their prey close to drown them, not to snag a set of legs and get married to a prince with a fish fetish. Niko made sure I learned something over the years of homeschooling and not all of it was math and grammar.

"Jersey?" I groaned and looked over to my brother. "We have to go to Jersey?" It was only a forty minute drive, if that, but like any good New Yorker I hated the godforsaken state.

"It's simple job. If you want to be a lazy prick I can go on my own."

I growled. We both knew that no job was a simple job. Bodachs, Boggles, or Brownie infestations, it didn't matter; neither of us would ever go it alone. "When?"

"Tomorrow night, if you can get off from work."

"How much?" I turned to Promise for that since she handled most of our finances and PR. Thank heavens for that, because I sucked at both.

"Hundred per head," she told me and at my bitter expression offered a sullen smile. "As Niko said, it's a simple job."

"Fine, I'll call Efferih tomorrow. He'll be ecstatic to give me the night off."

Niko made a little sound of surprise as he folded up the satellite picture of what I assumed was Overpeck greens. "Ishiah still isn't around?"

I shook my head and headed over to the fridge. I was hungry and thirsty and two am wasn't going to stop me from finishing off the other half of my foot long sub from that morning. "I haven't seen him at all for a few weeks. Every now and then one of his brothers shows up to talk to Efferih or take over for him for a few hours, but they all hate my Auphe guts so they don't talk to me and I'm not asking."

"Seems strange. Robin doesn't know what's going on either. You would think he'd trust us enough to help him by now."

"Maybe he doesn't need it," I offered, chewing most of my mouthful of Italian meats and bread so it didn't come out muffled. "It might just be a family thing. Reunions never go well." Niko didn't look convinced, but he knew there was nothing to be done about it _until_ Ishiah asked for help. After laying out a plan of attack for tomorrow night, Promise and Niko slipped off to his room and I flopped down in front of the television to finish the rest of my sub and some milk before heading to bed myself.

It wasn't nightmares tonight, but a much more adult theme. I didn't mind those at all. Only it wasn't the body of some Penthouse playgirl or Delilah like usual. It was Cassie. Smiling that sexy grin over her bare shoulder as I climbed over her. Mewling with that musical voice when I touched her. Her pouty lips against mine, her dark mahogany eyes searing, and her fingers clawing at my back as I rocked into her. It was wrong, but I let it happen. Dreams couldn't hurt anyone, right? And then she punched me. I lost my grip on her arm which I'd been holding over her head. She shoved a knee into my side and rolled so I was underneath her. She wasn't naked anymore...when did that happen? And she wasn't panting in the heat of sex, more like the heat of battle.

"Stop." The ground was cold to my back, her body warm over my bare thighs. I didn't want to stop. We were enjoying ourselves. Why did it always go crazy and horror film at the good parts?

I swiped at her as if I had claws, trying to stop the pain of her hand to my throat. She was choking me, but not enough to damage or cut off my air completely. She caught my hand, then glanced up fearfully. Something was coming. I knew it too. I could feel then, smell them. I snarled at her, snapped at her like a rabid dog to get off me.

"Little lamb, go home. You don't belong here. There's still some left in you," she told me. I struggled against her, but she was stronger. Her clothes were torn from fighting and stained with blood and gray dirt, her hair was almost in dreads to her waist with the same grimy mixture. She said something else, but I couldn't make it out over the thrum of gates opening in my head like surround sound speakers crackling out. The Auphe were coming.

My breath nearly left me, but I managed to get it out as if I hadn't used my tongue to speak for days. "Niko..." Cassie smiled down at me, genuine relief.

There was an earsplitting war cry from above and she was tackled from her dominate position over me. Another flash of silver and my heart began thundering. My conscious self wanted out now. That always happened when the Auphe invaded my dreams. I scrambled back on the rough stone ground and curled into a ball. I didn't want to watch Cassie be torn apart by my dark other half even if it was just a dream. Between fingers I could see blood pooling in rivers, creeping towards my feet. The wet sound of innards slapping to the ground and the scrape of claw to bone. She didn't even scream.

I did, though. Bolting upright in my bed and panting out little whimpers like I did when I was a child. I stared at the darkness of my room. Shot a look toward the window to confirm there wasn't anything there. Nothing to be afraid of. Nothing hiding in the dark. I gripped at the sheets and tried my hardest to bring back the images of Cassie smiling at me naked or not, I didn't care, as long as she wasn't in pieces.

Niko slammed open my door, sword in hand, but after a quick scan of the room he lowered it and his shoulders dropped. He silently walked over to the bed and sat on the edge right near my legs. He touched one knee as if to assure me I was back and safe.

I knew that. I had enough nightmares by now to realize when I was home...home. Damn what did that dream mean? Was it a metaphor? Was it a warning? Did it mean that the Auphe were coming? Or that I would be the death of Cassie if she stayed near me? She said I didn't belong here, but where was here? I didn't belong in the Earth realm, not when half of me was from a parallel world that you had to rip through space and time to get to. So was it all subconscious? My own fears and short comings returning to haunt me.

"Don't let me see her again," I said, once I knew my voice wouldn't shake. Promise appeared in the threshold of my room in one of Nik's tee shirts and her crossbow at her side. It was a pretty sexy look; even in my mind-reeling moment I could admit to that. But I didn't really want to be checking out the long, toned legs of my brother's girlfriend so I dropped back onto my mattress and covered my eyes with my arm. "Don't let me see her, Nik." I wasn't talking about Promise and my brother knew that.

Niko patted my knee again. "Okay, little brother." He stood up and left me. Him and Promise whispering softly in the threshold, before Niko shut the door. Niko knew I meant Cassie. Or at least, I hoped he did, because if I couldn't have her I needed Delilah as a back up. Not that she would care as long as she got her way. I punched my pillow, then punched it again for good measure. Fuck my life. Fuck it to hell. 

Morning came and went while I was still asleep. Niko didn't wake me until he came back from his morning classes and when he did it was with a blade to my throat. I gasped, rolled out of range and clumsily onto my feet on the other side of the bed. I caught the blade by the handle when he threw it at me and realized with dread it was the knife I stored under my pillow. Niko looked far from pleased.

"Just because the Auphe are gone and I assure you they are gone, doesn't mean you can slack off," he lectured. "You were sleeping much too deeply—"

"Because it was you," I defended and chucked the knife onto my tangled bed sheets. There were few people that my constantly aware body let sneak up on me. Niko was one of them. Robin was another. Promise was starting to be able to enter the apartment without me noticing, but my bedroom was still a different story. "My body isn't expecting a ninja attack from my brother."

"Get up. It's passed three and I can see your muscles deteriorating from here," Niko snapped. He stalked out of my room with an obvious tension. Something had him spooked and I doubted it was my lack of super sense mid-REM. I ran a hand over my face to get the sleep out of my eyes and followed after him.

"What's wrong?"

Nik didn't waste a moment's breath trying to deny it. "You should know by now that whenever there is a lull, something is building behind the curtain. I don't want you relaxing when you should be preparing."

"For what? Our fight with the Nixie tonight? Hand me a harpoon and start up the grill, we're having tuna for dinner." I stood at the edge of the kitchen watching Niko pace. He went to the fridge to grab a water, pivoted toward me as he twisted off the top, and dropped his back to the sink halfway there. "Nik, you suggested going alone. If you think so little of these bitches then why would you, for a moment, think I'm not on par enough to pick off the stragglers?"

Then it dawned on me; my brother was antsy. My brother the quintessential Zen master ninja assassin was itching for a fight. Okay, maybe not itching, maybe it was just anticipating. We'd saved the world three times so far, mostly to save ourselves, but points to us for effort. Niko was waiting for the next go round on this crazy carousel of death and destruction. "Relax."

Niko shot me a look at those words. Surprised, perturbed, then defeated. He'd been the one to teach me to meditate, to use tranquility to sooth the Auphe beast and hone my haphazard fighting skills. And yeah, I relished throwing it back in his face, but I also didn't like it when I was the level headed one. "The world will always be in peril because of some schmuck trying to take over or show off, we can't always be there, we won't always be there and damn it we deserve a vacation from it. Enjoy the eye of the storm, Cyrano. Embrace it. Embrace Promise, at least."

"Enough, I think I'm getting a migraine from my head reeling."

"I'd offer you aspirin, but your body is your temple and all that jazz."

Niko watched me for another long moment. What a sight I probably was, still in boxers and a tee rumpled from sleep with eyes hooded and a yawn teasing my jaw. We'd lived together long enough that he was familiar with this look though as well as the dubious one I gave him next. "The other shoe will drop, but in the meantime we live our lives."

"I guess you did become an adult at some point, didn't you?" Niko screwed the cap back on his water and placed it on the counter beside him. "That doesn't mean you're absolved. You slept in until three, you haven't done one chore for a week, and you've missed the morning run for almost as long. If those Nixie don't kick your ass tonight, I will tomorrow."

Good thing they kicked my ass that night.

I leveled five bullets through one of the oversized trout's chest point blank when I realized guns weren't doing jack and I was running out of air. Nixie were strong; I hadn't expected that. I expected the long walk to the tenth green to be more exhausting than shooting three half-fish in a barrel. But they weren't half human with the fins and tail of a dolphin or even a bass. It was more like a snake and they were prehensile enough to slap you something fierce across the face. That's how the one got me in the water, got her hands on me and pushed me under.

Her grip was like a pitbull's and I couldn't pry it off while holding my gun and I wasn't letting my Desert Eagle go, oh no. So round six went against her wrist, effectively separating her hand from the rest of her arm. With a siren wail I could hear even under water, she released me. I pushed off the sludgy bottom and surfaced to suck in a desperate breath. Her tail slammed me in the back, bruising my kidney, but leaving my air. I spun, producing my black matte knife and shoving it in her temple where the brain should be.

The gilled bitch lurched, fish eyes bulging. She slid backward off the knife, despite the serrated edge and flopped into the water like a released catch left to long on the boat deck. Panting, I sloshed over to the edge of the riverbed and hoisted myself out. Niko didn't even help me. He stood with one foot on a decorative rock, cleaning his sword with the hem of his shirt. Two other Nixie bodies had been dragged to the river's edge, both missing heads. One I could see in a nearby sand trap.

"Nix and Nixie are generally only susceptible to steel and trickery," he told me. His gray eyes held amusement as I stopped in front of him, sopping wet and aching all over. "What was that joke you made about fish in a barrel on the way over here?" I glared. "Or were you trying to get out of sparing with me tomorrow, because after that display I have no choice but to school you anyway."

Having no witty reply, I trudged back to the car, wringing out my shirt on the way. "I hope your car smells like rotting sushi for a month." Niko had bought three cars since we moved to New York and finally settled down. One was flipped like a pancake by some god-like demon while we were still in it, one was set on fire by an alcohol drenched towel and a schizo Rom while we were still near it, and number three –neither a station wagon boat or a clunker convertible– was waiting patiently for our return near the clubhouse. The least non-descript one yet. I'm sure the Eldorado was classic eons ago, but this one hadn't seen better days since free love and cocaine were free flowing. It was obviously one of those cars that a collector bought for cheap and fixed up to be a beauty, but Niko had no intention of even making the tank a single color. It was like driving around in a rusted, rainbow Frankenstein boat. It didn't even have its radio antenna and I wasn't sure about the vinyl top come winter. One flake too many and that roof was going to cave, probably in my lap. It didn't help that this was also full circle; the first car we had when we stopped running in New York was an Eldorado. Of course it stopped running right about when I wanted to stop running, so I guess it wasn't so bad.

"All that for three hundred bucks," I growled. I tossed my jacket to the ground in disgust, it wasn't my favorite anyway. Delilah still had my leather jacket and I wasn't getting that back if I kept saying I was leaving and never actually did. I unbuckled the shoulder holster from my chest and dropped it into the back seat. "I know we need to hone our skills and all, rack up experience, but come on! The Vigil could have handled that."

Niko raised his brow and gave me a sidelong glance down the length of his long nose. "This from the boy who spent the entire fight underwater?"

"Man. You already admitted I was I man, you can't take it back now," I snapped and stripped out of my shirt. I didn't actually want Niko's car stinking; I had to ride in it too most of the time. Niko opened the trunk and riffled through it as I continued to rant. The course was closed this late at night, and the owner had obviously asked all the maintenance people to take the night off. Even the lights in the parking lot were turned off for our midnight run. "And it was a tactic. A good tactic."

"Get the last few brain cells you've got smacked out of you and fight them in their element where they have the upper hand. Good tactic, I'll have to try that next time." He tossed me a clean shirt and had a pair of my jeans in his hand once I'd pulled my head through the collar. I glared again for his assumption that I'd been water bound before we even left the apartment, then snagged the pants and stripped out of my own.

"I got it done, didn't I?"

"Sloppily."

I snorted. "That's how I get it done." Niko smirked, but shook his head. He patted my shoulder then headed around to the driver's side to get us home. I balled up my reeking clothes and stuffed them into a plastic bag left in the trunk. I dumped my shoes in there too, figuring I could put them on when we got to Robin's car lot. He let us park the Eldorado at his business for free, tucking it away in the back with the other cars no one in their right mind would want. It was a short subway ride from there to our apartment and free. We liked free.

The lights were on in the dealership when we arrived, which gave both Niko and I pause. Car salesmen were evil, but even the devil didn't stay at work until after midnight. He might, but then he was evil _and _insane. I nodded to Nik in agreement to check it out. It wouldn't be the first time Robin's dealership was ransacked, though it normally incurred damage because of me or whatever job Niko and I were on.

Only one side of the double doors were locked when we pulled at them. No alarm went off, which meant someone was savvy enough to turn it off or someone really was crazy enough to still be working. I didn't smell anything off –special Auphe nose activated– just tires, grease, oil, old coffee, and rich, earthy evergreens. "Robin," I told Niko and ceased the whole stalking through the showroom thing. Niko followed me and what we saw was possibly the most shocking thing I'd ever seen.

Robin Goodfellow. Working. Diligently. Usually he was running his mouth even while doing paper work, such was the forte of any salesman, but he didn't even notice the company when we approached his door. He was bent over his desk, even more plaques on display behind him than before, curly haired head bowed to scan over papers clutched one hand. A single desk lamp and the computer screen were the only lights on in the room and the only sound was his pen tapping to the desk methodically.

"Goodfellow?" I called, rapping on the open door with my knuckles. Robin jolted and stared at us in shock, then let out a breath. Perhaps a first; surprising a puck.

"Thor's inadequate hammer, you startled me." Green eyes flickered between Nik and me in confusion. "What are you doing here?"

"Back from a job. Dropping off the car. What are you doing here?"

He motioned with the papers in his hand. "Running a business suffering like any other in this recession."

"You have plenty of money," I countered. It was also a question since I didn't know shit about running a business.

"I'm not going to use my own funds," Robin spat out incredulously. "Not only would it be a waste and never ending, but it would make tax season just that much more difficult. Men have gone to jail for siphoning funds like that and even I wouldn't appreciate the copious amounts of sex I'd procure while living in such squallier."

"Monogamy getting to you?" I half-teased as I sat down in one of the chairs opposite his desk. Half-teased only because I was kind of concerned that he was here crunching numbers instead of with Ishiah screwing. I'd grown accustom over the years to my fondness of Robin. He was a pain in the ass, overconfident, annoying, and stubborn as fuckall, but he was our friend. We didn't have many of those and the few that we ever had would never do what he'd done for us. Risked his life for me, for Niko, for the world. That meant something and I accepted that something as affection.

"No, monogamy isn't 'getting to me'," he said bitterly and rubbed at the bridge of his nose. Like all pucks, he was handsome, perfectly built and hung like a horse. Literally, I'd seen it by mistake once. Unfortunately, he knew it. And about now he normally broke into some rant about how Socrates invented monogamy because of something he said, or whatever, and so on and on and on. But Goodfellow wasn't on par tonight either. He sighed wearily, dropped the papers to the desk, but didn't straighten himself at all. Not even his shirt, which was wrinkled and probably Armani.

"It isn't the monogamy. The monogamy is coming easier than I thought. It's the lying."

"Robin, what's going on?" Niko asked, full of concern. He leaned his palms against the back of my chair, not wanting to sit down in an unfamiliar place. Especially one he'd been attacked in on two occasions.

"I don't know, that's the problem." Now he dropped back in his posh leather chair and smoothed down the front of his shirt. But it seemed absent-minded instead of purposeful and precise. "I've known Ishiah for a long time. Knew one of his crazy relatives and met him through her and pretty much wanted him right then. He was too stubborn to give in though, even if he defended me in front of the family. Peris...don't like pucks much. We're too..."

"Amoral," I supplied.

"Free spirited." Apparently, Goodfellow didn't like my suggestion. "The Cheris clan, Ishiah's clan, is one of the largest coming from a dull background. Nothing special about them, other than the fact that they have five heads of the clan where most have one to three. If they were in a war it was to aid another clan, if they established something it was with the help of their brother peris. So, needless to say, they like to keep good face with their brethren. Even if I have possibly the most handsome face any of them have ever seen and a personality equal to none, the Cheris clan does not deem me relationship material."

"But Ishiah lives outside the clan," Niko chimed in. Where did he find this stuff out? All I knew was that Ishiah hated Dr. Pepper and had a secret affinity for jazz. Niko caught my baffled look and decided it was time for Nik's Fact Corner. "Peris usually remain with their born clan unless they marry or mate outside of it. Ishiah took a risk leaving his clan to start his own business."

"He left long before the Ninth Circle and it came with a price," Robin amended. He motioned to his own cheek, mimicking the scar that drew from Ishiah's ear to his chin. "His father's handy work, the bastard. Ishiah was defending one of their not so honorable relatives and left the clan on principle, therefore he was marked as a betrayer. Which is also why he dislikes his brothers and hires other clan-less peris and wayward half-Auphe at his bar. He likes the underdogs and long shots if you haven't noticed." Despite his venomous retelling, Robin fell into a smile and even gave me a wink. Funny, I never got the impression that Ishiah liked me at all. "And he does like you, trust me."

I blinked at Robin, then glanced back at my brother. "Do I have a scrolling marquee on my face or am I talking out loud without realizing it?"

"Peris loath the Auphe," he went on as if I hadn't spoken and this time I was sure I had aloud. "They've been warring with them since before the humans evolved from cute little chimps. If he didn't like you, you would be dead by now. Or at least fired." Well, that was reassuring. Here I thought he only allowed me to stay because Robin asked him too. Maybe I should start showing up to work on time.

"Is that why Ishiah's family is here? Because of his relationship with you?" Niko sounded just as affronted by the thought as I would be if it were true. Screw them. Ishiah was off the reservation; whatever/whoever he wanted to do was his prerogative. He was old enough to make his own decisions. He was older than the humans as a race, I was pretty sure. Hell, he was at least ten thousand years older than me or more and apparently I was old enough to make my own decisions.

"I don't know," Robin sighed again. He flipped the pen across his knuckles then let it drop on his desk. "He won't tell me. Won't even talk to me about it. It's just strange since Joel and Hamishah are actually regarding me with greetings. I mean, they're nothing more than the acknowledging grunt that a Neanderthal would bestow upon his neighbor, but it counts for something. They aren't brandishing swords to get me out of Ishiah's loft at least...not that they have to. He keeps shooing me out himself."

"Well, Cassie seems to think it has to do with her," I offered. Robin started at me for a long moment, silent. It almost made my heart stop in shock.

"I'm sorry, who?"

"Cassie, Ish's niece. Cute girl, dark blond hair, big doe eyes, pouty lips."

"Cassie's been –pouty lips?" Robin redirected before finishing his sentence, smirking in that way he did when he knew I was attempting anything with the opposite sex. Like he found my inexperience hilarious and my naïveté meant I needed to be taught by the master, which wasn't entirely untrue, but I refused to admit he was the master at anything, puck or not. "I don't know which niece you met, Cal. He's got several hundred, but Cassie's been dead for three hundred years."

"I met her. Behind the Ninth Circle," I defended. Ghost weren't real, revenants and ghouls yeah, but ghosts not a chance. "Nik saw her too. In the park." Robin's green eyes were wide now as he flashed his gaze over to Niko above my head.

"She said her name was Castiella."

Robin's gaze darted about like someone just asked him the meaning of life, then they shimmered. "She's alive?"

"Alive enough to flirt with Cal." I elbowed my brother, tried too, but noted that he said she was flirting with me and not the other way around. Robin bolted up from his seat, flustered and tucking papers away in his desk. He flicked off his computer and came around his desk to nearly deposit me on the ground when he tilted my chair.

"I have to go. You have to go. Get out."

"Loman, geez. Wait a second." I gathered my legs under me even as the seat tilted and turned to face the puck. "You're not yourself right now and it's freakin' me out. Is Cassie being alive a good thing or a bad thing?"

Robin grabbed my shoulders and shook me once. He was almost crying. "A good thing. A very good thing. My best friend's alive." He looked like a man saved and I didn't blame him. Robin had lived so long and among the humans that natural death was probably something he was numb too, but it also made deep relationships difficult. It was why he attached himself to me and Nik. It was why he allowed a mummified cat with a perchance for destruction to take up residence in his expansive and expensive apartment. He was lonely, very lonely. Peris lived forever just like pucks, which meant Cassie had the ability to be his best friend for life.

"Why do you reek of fish?"

I glared at Goodfellow, taking back every sentimental thought I just entertained regarding him. "Nixie."

"Come on," Niko coaxed Robin from me and took hold of my arm in Robin's absence to lead me out of the office. "We'll head out first. Call us if you need us for anything." It was a formality more than an offer. It was Nik saying, 'I know you want us to leave, but don't forget we're here if the need arises'.

"I'll call you," Robin promised and ushered us out in a hurry. I watched him lock up, then rush over to his car, cell phone already pressed to his ear. "Why didn't you tell me, you feathered bastard!"

I smiled and glanced over at Niko. "I'm happy for him. Maybe he won't bother us as much now."

"Don't lie," Niko called me out. He moved to whap me over the back of the head, but I dodged. "Besides you don't even know what kind of friend she was." That blow, on the other hand, didn't miss.


	4. Chapter 4 Robin

**CHAPTER FOUR**

**ROBIN**

Puck, Pan, Faun, Robin Goodfellow, I came with several names and was pretty much as magnificent as I claimed to be, especially in bed. Or in the kitchen nook, or on the dinning room table, laundry room with the dryer on, I could continue and that was part of my point. Over the extensive amount of time on this planet, I'd learned a thing or two about myself. One, deep fried Oreos (or deep fried anything for that matter) did not agree with my stomach –it was more acquired to a finer quality of meal by now. Two, I liked to talk and sometimes it annoyed the hell out of people, but for some charmed reason they let me talk, so I kept talking. And three, I'd been in love with Ishiah much longer than I would ever admit to, so when he hung up his cell phone on my rant, I was a little more than hurt.

I decided to show it as rage. "You hung up on me, what the hell!"

Ishiah, my current steady sweetheart, stood in the threshold of his loft with that bored and dubious look on his handsome tilted face. "Why would I continue to listen to you prattle on in my ear when your standing right in front of me?"

"Because I hadn't hung up yet. And you should at least give warning, you don't just snap the cell closed. Unless you're profoundly angry and I'm the one who should be profoundly angry. Lying to me and hiding her from me. Are you cruel or are you jealous?"

"Robin, get in here and quiet down," Ishiah scolded, grabbing for my wrist to guide me into his place. I twisted back.

"Did you just tell me to shut up?" Four, I didn't like it when people told me what to do. Maybe that was why they usually just let me keep 'prattling' on.

"No, I told you to quiet down," Ishiah answered. He stepped over the threshold, arm still braced to the frame and body pressed into my personal space. I flinched even though I knew he wouldn't hurt me, couldn't really—as broad and deliciously muscular as he was, Ishiah was no match for one who had perfected the simple slash of a sword before the word 'sword' was even a molecule in its founder's primordial ooze of an undefined brain. Even still, peri tempers were one of the worst, comparable only to Keats' tantrum after they trashed his first painting. He was a rather level headed human normally and Ishiah was a level headed peri. His eyes remained their stable blue-gray though and when he touched me it was his palm cupping my cheek, not a punch or a slap, therefore I didn't bother dodging. "Robin, I don't care if you snap at me all night. You can say whatever you like, just quietly. My brothers are still here and they seem distracted by stories on the balcony. I'd like to keep them there."

His brothers. I'd forgotten. Four of them, the sons of Izrahiah. I, unfortunately, knew them well. Michael had those close-set beady eyes and a close-minded opinion that could set a red states' nerves alight. Joel was of the worst temper out of all the boys, pretty much starting the fall of the Berlin wall and not because of political issues, but because the youngest, last to hatch, pissed him off. Obediah and Hamishah were the lesser evils; Hami's vice being stupidity and Obediah's being arrogance. Regardless, I wanted to be in their presence probably less than Ishiah did.

I took in a deep breath to calm my nerves. Emotions ran rampant in me as a constant –the downfall of the pucks that we would never reveal. The trick was not letting them control me. Ishiah smiled his quirky half grin and leaned in closer to reward my attempts of not screaming at him with a gentle kiss. I was still getting used to it.

Not that I hadn't had my share of tender lovemaking, but Ishiah somehow managed to make me truly feel that genteel was reserved only for me. I supposed that was how all of my previous lovers felt when I showered them with attention; it baffled to be on the reverse. "I apologize for not telling you, but I felt it in Castiella's best interest for no one to know she was here or alive."

"How did the family find out?" Ishiah stepped aside to let me into the loft. A sparse residence that needed a stylish overhaul yesterday. Peris weren't materialistic creatures by nature, so his apartment consisted of one giant room that served as a living room, bedroom and an open kitchen nook. The bathroom, which only had a stand up shower, toilet, and sink, was tiny and enclosed in one corner. He did have a nice open balcony that retained the sun for the majority of the day and overlooked the street below, high enough that Central Park could be seen. No way in Hades' vacation home I was going out with the brothers to enjoy the view though. I could see them lounging on lawn chairs, passing around a bottle of wine probably pilfered from Ishiah's collection. Contrary to popular lore, peris _did_ drink and fuck, but they partook in the former with boring moderation and the latter was reserved for a single mate.

"Are they still up or did they just get up?" I asked, realizing it was nearing morning by this point.

"Still up," Ishiah grunted. He took my hand and pulled me farther into the room. Only half the lights were on in the loft, which made it possible for us to stick to the shadows. I smirked, body suddenly no longer tired when I noticed he was taking me to the bedroom area.

"Really?" I asked, hopeful. He stopped me in front of the bed and tugged at the brass chain of the lamp next to his bed to cast us in darkness. "I mean, I'm certainly fine with us driving our relationship home and all, but I somehow doubt your brothers would be pleased by the entertainment." I traced my fingers down his abdomen, loving that I could feel his muscles even over the loose dress shirt. And to my great and elated surprise, Ishiah ran his fingers through my hair and kissed me again. This one wasn't as tender as the previous one, much more passionate. I liked it.

I smiled and swiftly started unbuttoning his shirt before he changed his mind. Ishiah changed his mind much too often. Exhibitionism was hardly a peri trait; too bad really, he was gorgeous when he came, all flushed with his wings spread wide. True to form he collected my hands in his to stop them of their endeavor and pressed another kiss to my temple. "Not now. I'll come by your place tonight if I can get away."

"It's still tonight," I coaxed, my lips brushing over the ripple of the scar above his jaw. "You've been denying me for too long, angel. If you're not careful my insatiable desires might get the best of me."

He cast a scolding look on me. "I've told you time and again that you're only tied to me because you want it. If you—"

"I meant that I would take you right here," I interrupted. I tired of his tempting me to stray. I loved him, yeah, I could proclaim that in my head until I was a blue in the face. I hadn't said it out loud more than once and he refrained because he didn't believe this was where I should be. I had a feeling it would become an old argument in the near future. "Now, tell me where Cassie is? If you're not planning on pounding me into the mattress in the next five minutes, I at least need a drinking buddy to whittle away the hours."

"I'd tell you, if I knew. She took off after a fight with Joel. We haven't seen her for nearly a week."

I glanced over at the balcony still in view. "Must not have been an impressive fight. Joel's still alive." Ishiah reproached me with another glare, but I wasn't about to retract that statement. Cassie was more balanced than any of us, but she still had that peri temper and held more skill to administer her dissatisfaction. In the centuries I known her and been friends with her, she'd instigated only one fight and that had been in my defense. She had, however, fought in the defensive position more times than I'd experienced post colitis in the last hundred years.

Perhaps not that many, but it was a close thing. And she remained undefeated, even against me in play. Emphasis on 'in play', should we have ever fought with blood shed in mind the odds would not be in her favor, unless she broke out the big guns. It would be a fight I would never wanted to partake in, considering the fact that she was one of the few creatures in the world that might actually be able to kill me. Lucky, she loved me so much, and I her. "Is she still in the city?"

"Can't find her. I provided some funds for her. I'm sure she's gotten an apartment and started trying to live her life again, whether it is here or in another state entirely I'm unsure."

"So why are they still here?" The brothers looked to be gathering themselves to reenter the loft. Maybe if I brought them another bottle they would stay gleefully _away_. It worked with the Romans fifty percent of the time.

Ishiah didn't reply, but by the solemn look on his strong face, I could figure it out. Like in the days of yor, they wanted the black sheep out of the clan. I didn't matter than Cassie avoided them and lived on her own, didn't matter that she didn't ever mention she was of the Cheris clan in any company. Peris didn't like skeletons in their closet and they often banished those who hid them there. Cassie was to be executed for her sins to her kind and Ishiah was probably the only thing stopping his brothers from doing so. That and she didn't pull punches when her life was on the line. Even against four capable peris I wasn't eager to place bets on her demise for several reasons.

"She hasn't done anything wrong!" I snapped. I knew I was displacing. Ishiah always fought to give her a chance, but it didn't matter when the sliding door skimmed open and Joel ducked inside. Well over six feet and built like a linebacker, I stormed over to him regardless and put my fury on the ones who deserved it. "She hasn't done anything wrong. You have no right to stalk her like this. Let her live her life and I'm sure it won't concern you. Out of sight out of mind."

The other brothers filed in and soon I was surrounded by them. I'd beaten worse odds, but wasn't really armed at the moment. "She's done nothing wrong?" Joel let of a hearty laugh that was anything but jovial. A hand clasped over my bicep; I would have spun and slapped it away, but I felt Ishiah's presence and caught his sandalwood scent. It left little room for me to give a full presentation of how skilled I was with my body outside of bed as well.

"She decimated three clans!" Joel screamed in my face. There were some times that even I understood the concept of personal space. "She murdered her brethren in cold blood. The Reveris clan, the Brakques clan, the Lediss clan; they are gone, extinct. Because of her. Because of that psychotic, murderous, abomination!"

"She was brainwashed!"

"She's a murderer. And she's a danger to us all," Michael added. He nudged his younger brother behind him with the back of his hand just so he could level his beady eyes with mine. "And we will kill her."

"Taking your time then?" I chuckled. It was a gamble, but as I said Cassie was undefeated. I'd seen her take on a troll by herself, when it took me, Niko, and Caliban to take out one of the bastards with a collapsing tunnel. The peris were frightened of her. What she was capable of because she _had_ nearly eradicated those clans. I never asked how many were left, but I knew that the Brakques were the only ones that were completely extinct, and they had been known as the great warriors of the peris. Exaggeration was usually a puck trait, but every creature of this world had a certain affinity for it. Peris were no different.

"When we find the means to destroy her we will," Michael assured me and pulled back. Not as a retreat, but as an effort to proclaim the discussion over. He walked away from me with a pompous grin and his brothers followed. All save for Ishiah, who stood irritatingly silent at my side.

"Things have changed, brothers Cheris." Five, I couldn't let a conversation end, especially when I hadn't had the last word. "Castiella is more than what you think of her. She is balanced, more than any of you sorry excuses for what is right and good in the world. She hasn't killed in malice since before I knew her and I _knew_ her. She has compassion, love, and honor."

"The word of a puck," Michael chuckled. He tossed the empty bottle in the flip lid trash can next to Ishiah's refrigerator, walked backward several steps as they made their way to the door. "How could I ever dismiss that?"

"If she is the horrific being you claim she is, why are you still alive?" I questioned. Crossing my arms over my chest, I actually managed a smile, even if it wasn't a particularly expressive one. "Why hasn't she killed you all? As she was born to do?"

"She can't defeat us all," Joel let off another of his obnoxiously self-involved laughs. "We're peris. If she tried to face us—"

"We'd be dead in an instant," Ishiah finished for him. He lifted his chin, blue eyes flashing gold even in the darkness of the room. I jutted a thumb toward him with a tilt of my head.

"Dismiss that," I challenged; it was a very Caliban retort, but it felt right. Michael scowled at his brother and stormed out of the loft, the three other pigeons on his tail feathers. The door slammed shut and Ishiah and I were left in silence.

Six, I never let the silence remain. "You know she would never hurt you, right?"

"Of course. Do you think I would lend her my couch let alone money to live here if I did?" Ishiah turned me to him with a touch to my crossed arms. "This is a delicate situation, Robin. I assure you that I will do everything in my power to stop them."

"You know what will happen if they attack her?"

Ishiah frowned; he looked so much more handsome when he smiled. "I become Izrahiah's only son..." I dropped my arms and returned my attention on the last few buttons on his shirt, giving him a sly smirk in hopes to entice his own.

"Only if they actually threaten her life. And I have friends in stealth ninja half Auphe places now." Ishiah accepted my kiss, trailing one hand through my light curls, but he wasn't distracted enough for my tastes. "Cassie will be safe with us."

"Don't involve them," Ishiah reprimanded. Funny how he could scold me while stripping out of his shirt. I shucked my own and started guiding him toward the bed by his belt loop.

"Why? I've provided them with my exceptional swordsmanship, superb wit, unparalleled style. It's high time they returned the favor."

"Because saving you from the Banu Zadeh and your past indiscretions didn't accomplish that?"

I wrinkled my nose and took his mouth, breathing into his ear as I worked him out of his pants. "Not even slightly."

"I don't want Cal associating with her," Ishiah went on. I grunted in surprise when he shoved me back onto the mattress. He kicked out of his pants as I leaned back on my arms, appreciating the view when he stood over me. Like the chiseled David only much more impressively endowed and evenly tanned from head to tip. Peris liked to bask in all their glory, hence Ishiah's sunbathed balcony; something we had in common.

"Cal is hopeless when it comes to the female species, you have nothing to worry about."

"Castiella isn't and that isn't my concern. If she associated with a hybrid like Cal it would only draw attention to the boy and instigate my brothers to end the Auphe race completely. Castiella can hold her own, escape if need be, but Cal is handicapped now."

I smirked and caught a tendril of his long blond hair, tugging it to get him on the bed. "I knew you liked him."

"Don't discuss this with them," Ishiah warned. He avoided my kiss and shot me an impatient look, brow lifted. I frowned, but nodded. I didn't like keeping secrets from the young brothers. First off, I liked them and trusted them on a level I hadn't since...well, since Cassie. Secondly, I'd seen what secrets could do among them and I didn't like risking losing them. Secrets got out and usually they did so with a bang. Just look what happened to Hitler when his advisor found out he was gay.

"Now," Ishiah went on, his tone taking on the much more appreciated thrum of passion. "It is, as you astutely pointed out, still tonight." Seven, if anyone other than me got in the last word, it was Ishiah, and I was okay with that. 


	5. Chapter 5 Cal

**CHAPTER FIVE**

**CAL**

One would think after being trapped in a world of constant cold and desolation for two years, I would be overjoyed to bask in heat and population. I wasn't. Some concert was going on at Bryant Park, a new Broadway show opening the same night, and some crazy outdoor festival crowded the very streets I took to get back to the apartment from work. Two am and it was still in full swing with bodies, drunk off of alcohol and endorphins, stumbling every which way. Including in _my_ way. I grimaced as I had to slip by a pair of humans connected at the mouth without exposing my firearm. The heat of the summer was still beating relentlessly down even after the sun was long gone and I was sweltering in my third favorite jacket.

The bar had been just as insane; all the monsters attempting to find solace away from the scattered humans. I'd think they would treat it like a smorgasbord, so many warm bodies out and ripe for the kidnapping, or slaughtering, or life sucking, or whatever caught their fancy. They avoided it though, well most of them, and I didn't blame them. The pressure on my personal bubble was on the verge of popping it and I somehow doubted the authorities would appreciate me swinging my Glock around just to thin the crowd around me.

"Cal?"

I stiffened, hardly expecting any human to know me and those that did I'd been evading for a few years now. I glanced over my shoulder and breathed a sign of relief, which promptly turned into a nervous smile when the blond girl trotted up to me. "So I've been promoted up from a lamb, huh?"

Cassie grinned, and I'd been dreaming of that grin for several nights now –before it turned into a nightmare of blood horror of course. She pressed to the toes of her sneakers as she stopped in front of me. Aside from the tattered Converses her wardrobe had been upgraded to a sundress of a bright blue shade. Something about the casual pairing made me like her even more, plus it was tight and let me confirm that my imagination was pretty spot on. "34B."

I blinked and forced my eyes up to meet hers. "Huh?"

"My bra size is a 34B. You just seemed very intent on a visual study, I figured you'd like a few facts as well." She said it with amusement, not at all offended by my ogling. I smiled; yeah, I liked her. She spun on the sneakers to pivot beside me. "Where are you headed?"

"Home," I answered and started walking again. The crowd didn't seem as oppressing anymore. Cassie walked on my gun side, so when we were pushed by the celebrating crazies she was knocked against me, keeping the weapon hidden and providing me with a subtle touch of those 34Bs. And yeah, I was consciously trying to forget that I told Niko never to let me see her again. "So if you're planning on stalking me, you're not doing a very good job."

She hummed softly, still smiling. "Am I that obvious?"

I stopped on the sidewalk, ignoring the drunk asshole that slammed into me from behind. He spouted off a few curses at me, while his friends dragged him away, but I was focused solely on the little pixie in front of me. Standing next to her I noticed just how un-peri-like she was, body wise. Most peri I knew were male, but I'd seen Efferih's wife and she was just as tall and broad as they were. Cassie was petite. Slender shoulders exposed with her autumn-colored hair flowing to her hips, which were curved just enough to give her that sexy hourglass shape. She was at least a half foot shorter than my almost six feet, probably more, but it suited her thin limbs and heart-shaped face. And this cute little girl next door was flirting with me and just admitted it right there and then.

"So obvious it's rendered you speechless," she said with some embarrassment. She rocked back on her heels and jerked a thumb over her shoulder. "I should go, before I start blushing."

"Don't," I clipped out, then was at a loss of words again. I didn't want her to leave. It wasn't often that any female showed interest in me, outside of interest in wanting me dead or far far away from them. And it certainly was strange that a girl so seemingly normal flirted with me. "You have to have issues." Apparently, my filter turned completely off around her.

Cassie tilted her head, then promptly started laughing. Damn, was that a good laugh. Genuine, brightly musical, with a little bass to make it sultry. "Why, yes I do. Who doesn't? I'm sure you can't cast the first stone on that one."

"A sound retort," I agreed. I had a whole series of issues. And the back issues were the worst. "I just meant for you to be interested in me, you have issues."

Cassie smirked again and took a step closer to me. She smelled so good. Woodsy, but not like Robin, who smelled like evergreens. She had a hint of floral in her scent that I doubted was perfume. Earthy, but not in that too strong sandalwood way.

The people on the streets had begun weaving around us, avoiding us like they often did with the weird and strange. They didn't know why, didn't see the truth behind a fur covered face of a werewolf, or the sickeningly green decay under a revenant's hood. And just like those visuals, they sensed something about me and maybe Cassie too. We weren't the same, we weren't human and they turned a blind eye.

"Why do you say that? Because of that grumpy brooding look you always wear?" She took another step, bringing us only inches apart. "That just makes the smiles all the more rewarding. Or is it the dark half your worried about?"

I tried to curb a smile, just to deny her the satisfaction. "It's a little more than half. I'm Auphe, Cassie, which makes me dangerous."

She giggled. "You are not Auphe. And you are no danger to me." That being said she took my gun side arm and looped her own around it, coaxing me down the block. Her scent became stronger so close and it made my insides growl in anticipation for something I couldn't place. "If anything you should be frightened of me. I'm the anti-peri after all. A murderous killing machine." She said it with a tone of anger, like I would declare myself a ball of sunshine and puppies. She didn't believe her words, but she'd been told she was those things. I could recognize spite when I heard it. It was a regular additive pumping through my veins.

"Still not getting along with the family?" She snorted, but kept gazing ahead of us. Walking in silence with her wasn't entirely uncomfortable, but I honestly didn't want to head home quiet yet and we were getting closer. "You hungry?"

That smile broke out on her face a second later and she cuddle my arm a little closer so I could feel her warmth and softness through my jacket. "Always."

Unfortunately, the only places open at the odd almost morning hour were the dives. Cassie didn't seem to mind though and bounced into the only open booth at Sam's Place across from me. I'd flipped out my cell phone as she scanned the menu and waited for Niko to pick up. I wasn't about to roll in to the apartment late without a call twice in one month. He'd have my hide for that.

"Hey, Niko."

"Where are you?" I smirked into the phone. Niko wasn't quiet concerned yet, but he was getting there. The progression was usually aware, to concerned, to pissed off and scared. I'm glad I caught it before it got to the third stage.

"Sam's Place. Got hungry. I'll be back before the sun rises."

"Ten miles," he snipped and the connection closed. I frowned at the receiver, not sure if it was the coming home late or the greasy food that had little to no nutritional value that rewarded me with another five miles to run tomorrow.

"Hey," I tucked my cell back into my jacket and glanced up at Cassie. Niko's threat reminded me of something. "You stood us up for our run that morning. What happened?"

"Oh, yeah." Her reluctance was as apparent on her face as it was in her slouched body language. "Got caught up in that whole hiding from my uncles thing. Sorry."

"You want to join us tomorrow? It would be much more enjoyable than watching my brother's ass leave me in the dust."

Her full lips quirked at one corner. "Depends on how late I can get you to stay out tonight." The waitress came by smacking her gum so loudly I couldn't have responded even if I'd wanted to. It was the thing I liked about Sam's Place, it was straight out of a movie; the typical truck-stop restaurant. The waitress' name was Beth, but I called her Bertha Blue. She was fat, dressed like she was still stuck in the fifties and wore this horrendous blue eyeshadow that reached her bushy eyebrows. She was also a horrible waitress and bitched about her tip to my face more than once. Lucky the food was good.

I ordered a cheeseburger with Sam's mega fries, which were an amazing concoction of cheese wiz, ranch dressing, and bacon, and glanced over at Cassie waiting for her to order something as well. And again, she surprised me. "Cheese steak and onion rings. Oh, and a root beer float." With her size I expected something more like a salad or a wrap. And a vegetarian peri wouldn't have been a shock either. She caught my look and shot me a glare.

"What do you think this is? A sock hop?" Bertha laughed. Cassie's dark eyes flickered up, the glare still there and much more potent. The waitress' eyes hooded, blue eye shadow enveloping the entire lid. She stopped laughing, but still pressed on. "We don't have root beer floats."

"Do you have root beer?" Cassie challenged. Bertha started to say yes and Cassie cut her off. So help me I found that sharp tone of hers kinda sexy. "Do you have ice cream?" A sassy nod from Bertha Blue. "Imagine that. Those are the exactly ingredients one puts in a root beer float. Why don't you go try it out and see how that goes for you?"

The waitress retreated and hustled away from the table as fast as her easy spirits could take her. I chuckled when she was gone. "And the peri temper reveals itself."

"Oh, come on. It's not that difficult."

"I'm not denying that," I laughed again. "But you do know the cook is going to spit in your cheese steak now."

She shrugged, unconcerned. "I'll live. Might be an improvement."

The drinks arrived faster than they ever had before and surprisingly the float didn't look suspect. Cassie taste tested it and shrugged again. "Pretty good." She leaned back and called to Bertha Blue and the cook who gathered by the kitchen window. "Knew you could do it, thank you."

I pressed my knuckled to my lips to stifle a laugh. "I never thought you'd be able to pull of bitchiness."

"Only when it's deserved," Cassie replied and sipped at her custom made drink. "So how long have you and Niko been here in the city that really does never sleep?"

"A few years. We were running full tilt from the Auphe since I was sixteen. I finally got fed up and we decided to settle. Figured my brother deserved to finally have a life. What about you?"

"I heard Uncle Ish lived here and decided to visit. I've been estranged for a while, plus I was best friends with a puck that hung around Ishiah, so I wanted to see if he was still around too."

"Right, Robin. I told him you were here, just so you know."

Her mahogany eyes lit up and she pulled away from her straw. Shame, I was enjoying watching her lips wrap around it. "You know Robin? Robin Goodfellow. I'd describe him, but pans kinda all look the same."

"Yeah, I know him. He's pretty much Nik and my only friend." I paused and couldn't resist adding, "He's, uh, dating Ish now." I watched for a reaction, waiting to see if it was deflation or glee. Niko put that damned worm in my ear, thinking that she and Robin might have been something. It wasn't far-fetched; I think Robin had banged half the world by this point. And I wasn't really sure why it bothered me that he might have had this particular being in similar situations that had been invading my dreams recently.

"Dating," she stumbled over the word. Her expression was hard to read, but I was thinking confusion. "As in..._dating_." She put a lot of emphasis on the word and drew it out. "Not sleeping with each other, but dating. Robin. Monogamous."

I smiled. It rocked my world when he said the 'm' word too, so I got where she was coming from. "As in exclusively puck and peri." Cassie dropped back in the booth, slouching further and gazing out the window as if trying to solve some impossible math equation. "Does that...disappoint you?"

"Disappoint?" She echoed, then stopped when she caught my eyes. Something must have been written there, because she started snickering, then almost crying she was laughing so hard. I was thankful when the food was set down in front of us, because it at least distracted her enough to stop mocking me. "Oh, little lamb. Me and Robin? You thought?" She covered her mouth as she laughed a bit more. "Oh no, dear boy. That may not be incest, but mentally it's a close thing."

Relief flooded over me. They were closer than best friends, but like siblings. "So you never?"

"Not for his constant lack of trying," Cassie offered and dumped a healthy pile of ketchup on her cheese steak. "He stopped when I told him I didn't want to have sex with someone whose dick would hit the back of my teeth mid-colitis." I choked on my soda, the bubbles actually reaching my nose. I grabbed for a napkin and Cassie just went on. "Inflated his ego and was pretty believable, I mean I don't know if you've seen his—"

"I have, accidentally, and I don't need details," I pleaded between coughs.

"Anyway, he's like my brother and he's been in love with my uncle for at least a thousand years so there was no way I was going to ruin a friendship with guy who saw me for who I was and not what everyone said I was and a relationship with the only relative that could actually look at me without cringing." She took a big bite of the sub, assessed it as she chewed and nodded in appreciation. "This is actually really good. You wouldn't think it from the pealing paint and missing ceiling tiles. And might I add that I find it cute that you were just relieved to know I never slept with Robin."

I focused on my burger, avoiding eye contact successfully through about three bites. She threw a fry at me, bouncing it off my lapel and into my lap. "Am I coming on too strong again? It's been a while for me, still adapting."

"Where were you?" I asked, avoiding the topics that would force me to get in touch with my feelings. "Robin thought you were dead."

"Most still do, which is better. Ishiah's currently trying to keep me a secret and trying to convince my other uncles and aunts to do the same. Of course, they just want me dead." My 'why' was hanging in the air, but I didn't feel the need to say it. She knew making that comment would involve more of an explanation. "I did some bad things a long time ago, when I was lost and didn't know who I was. I went back to that place for the last…three hundred years or so, I think. Anyway I went there trying to make it all right, but apparently my efforts were in vain."

"That was equal parts cryptic and vague."

"Well, I'm not going to dish out all my secrets on the first date, Cal. That would just be too forward of me." She smirked and took another bite of her sub. I just shook my head, trying –again– not to smile with her. I'd never actually been on a date before. George manipulated a sort of double date with Nik and Promise once, but other than that… A life running away from the most malicious monsters in the world didn't really provide the opportunity for dinner and a movie. Of course, like any guy my age, good sex and the occasional brief snuggle was just as satisfying.

Witty, flirtatious banter was a nice change of pace, I decided. "So if I play my cards right, do I get a good night kiss?"

Cassie's smile turned incredibly sly, and damn was it enticing. "I'm not an amateur to the game, Cal, but it's been a very long time since I've played." She leaned forward, pushing her half finished plate aside. "So let me make this clear and hopefully you won't run away. I like you. I think you're adorable and sexy and naive. It's a turn on, not an insult. Therefore I want you and I would be perfectly happy to ask you right now; your place or mine?"

At some point I had dropped the French fry that had previously been on its way to my mouth. I stared at her as she sized me up. How was it that these straightforward women were drawn to me? Delilah was the same. Her usual greeting when she sought me out was 'Sex now.' Cassie was a little more eloquent, but the gist was the same. And my body, particularly the lower half, was very eager to comply. My brain was having trouble computing the situation though and unfortunately gave me a little time to think rationally.

"Cassie," I paused, braced my hands to the edge of the table in order to stop myself from getting out of the booth and dragging her back to my apartment. Or maybe hers would be better; Niko would probably be in a brotherly rage if I brought home a girl I barely knew. Especially one I made it clear to him needed to stay away from me. I shook my head. "I can't." Her shoulders dropped in disappointment and she nodded in reluctant acceptance. "It's not that I don't want to. I'd be crazy not to want to." My eyes unconsciously raked over her body and again I had to resist the hormones trying to control my desire to take her. Her scent didn't help; seducing me as it was. "There are just certain...conditions that prevent me from casual encounters."

"Conditions," she echoed. Then glanced at the table, if she could see through it that look would have been directed at my crotch.

"Not physical conditions!" I amended. I leaned forward when I noticed another waitress glance over. "I'm not dysfunctional or have some disease. They're more like guidelines, prerequisites."

Her dark eyes held mine as if waiting for me to expand on that. And when I didn't she pressed on. "Well? What are they?"

I pressed my fingers to one temple. "So you can discount them?"

"Maybe."

"I'm really not that much of a catch, Cassie."

"You haven't run away yet. If you want me to back down you need to stop being so interesting." She gave a half shrug. "Or tell me flat out you're not interested."

Yeah, I couldn't do that. Even if I did lie and tell her I wasn't ready to toss her onto the nearest bed, she'd probably see right through it. So I decided to keep it straight. I hadn't lied to her so far and _she_ hadn't run away either. "She has to know what I am."

Cassie consider for a moment. "Check."

"And not be scared."

"Check." She said it without hesitation and even lifted her eyebrows as if the concept was ludicrous. Delilah was the same; she never took me seriously and never believed that I could hurt her. That was until our little road trip where I took a turn for the Auphe and she saw it first hand when I put a gun to her head to save Rafferty and Catcher. That was also when the fighting started. I guess she never believed I would kill her if I had to before that, maybe she thought I was more attached to her than I really was.

"I'm serious, Cassie."

Cassie leaned to the table again, this time with her arms folded under her chest. It brought a good amount of cleavage into view and I averted my eyes to my burger. "Cal, I know what the Auphe are. The peris have been battling with them for ages. I've seen what they can do. And I know you aren't Auphe. Not entirely." I started to disagree, but she cut off the sound with a wave of her hand. "Cal, look at me." I complied, meeting her red-brown eyes. "I'm sure it's affected you. The human genes aren't strong enough to control the Auphe, but the human mind is. I'm sure every time you went off the deep end it was the human part that brought you back. Your brother's love, your friendship with Robin, your compassion not to hurt someone. I mean, come on, have _you _ever seen an Auphe blush?"

I shot her a glare. "You haven't seen some of the things I've done. Trust me, the Auphe is there."

"I'm not denying that. Its part of you and you will never escape it. Even now with all the Auphe dead, it will still be part of you. You will always be hated, always be hunted, always be a little bitchy sometimes, and I don't care. Because I want to spend time with you, not a half Auphe."

Well, that was a new feeling. Uncomfortable and in the center of my chest, making my lungs feel tight. For all I knew Cassie was almost as old as Ishiah and Robin –well, probably not Robin–, which meant she had a damned good lot of experience. It meant she might actually be telling the truth when she said she knew what the Auphe could do, but I honestly didn't believe it was first hand or she wouldn't be here.

"I've nearly died more than five times. My brother, just for being my brother, has had almost as many close calls. Robin, Ishiah, they've been in trouble because of me too. Just sitting in this booth with me puts you on some sort of hit list somewhere."

She tilted her head to one side, a shorter piece of her hair following the curve of one breast. I stared for an indulgent moment, then forced my eyes up. Cassie waited for me, not at all fazed. "Did you miss the part about the peris wanting me dead? She must know the risks; check."

I took in a deep breath for the deal breaker. If being so personal on the first 'date' didn't turn her off, her answer would probably cinch our very brief relationship's failure. "She has to be barren."

Cassie's darker brow pulled in with confusion and she sat back in her seat when Bertha Blue dropped off our bill without even asking if we needed anything else. "You hate kids that much?"

"I can't let the Auphe line go on. Under no circumstance."

"You know, I believe they created something for that back in the 19th century. It's called a condom, maybe you've heard of it?"

I sighed and ran my hands over my face. I couldn't believe I was having this conversation with her; a girl I met only a few weeks ago. And I was talking _her _out of having sex, what was the world coming too? "I don't believe they've ever been tested against Auphe sperm."

Her pouty lips puckered as she thought about that. "You may be right, those bastards are pretty tenacious. Regardless, check." I dropped my fingers to just under my lower lip, so I could see her clearly. I had to have heard her wrong.

Cassie grinned. "I told you before that peris lay eggs. Like eggs, eggs. Dinosaur sized eggs. I hear it's exceptionally painful." She shifted in her seat to pull a small fold of cash from her bra. She dumped some bills on the table and replaced the rest where it came from; apparently she was paying. "I don't have the right hormones to produce those eggs. I don't even get a period, though I still seem to get hormonal once a month. And I never expected to be having this conversation with you so soon." I still had my hands steepled at my mouth when she stood up from the booth. "Any more conditions?"

"Uh." Oh, so articulate, I knew. She didn't wait for me to gather my whirling thoughts. I tensed when she leaned over me. Letting her catch my chin when my hands dropped to the table. Her woody floral scent overwhelmed me, surpassing even the embedded grease and burnt meat smell of Sam's Place. I made a small sound that might have been more than one syllable, but her lips pressed to mine before it could form. They were just as soft as I'd imagined and parting them sent sparks to that unruly area below the belt.

"Just think about it," she told me. Mahogany eyes flickering to each of mine as she pulled back. "I'll see you tomorrow." I watched her go, too shell-shocked to actually follow. Obviously, the offer had expired tonight, but Cassie made it clear it was a rain check. I stared until her blond head disappeared out the door, a little bell ringing to signal her departure.

"You are an idiot." I stiffened and swung around to see a familiar face sitting in the booth behind me. Ham, or rather the pied piper of Hammel, was wiping his hands on a napkin. A crumb-dusted plate rested in front of him and his saxophone case was propped up beside him. I'd only seen him in passing over the last year. Occasionally, he'd come to the Ninth Circle and play for kicks. After all, the whole pied piper prank wasn't much more than a bloke getting his licks after being screwed over by an entire town. He wasn't a malicious guy, just obnoxious.

He was wearing his usual offensively bright attire; actually a little more casual than the suits he wore. A beanie tucked securely over his immaculate dreads. He snorted at me as if I'd said something too stupid to be funny. "You're just letting her go?"

"You were eavesdropping?" I snapped, feeling both ashamed and irate at the thought. Granted, it was better someone that knows me, my situation, and its delicacy, but I still didn't like anyone knowing my business.

"Without intention, I assure you. I have better things to do than listen to a teen drama."

"I'm not a teenager," I growled and Cassie certainly was past that prime. "And why don't you go do those better things then?"

"Why don't you?" Ham countered and tossed a wad of cash onto the table that looked like it had been crumpled up and tossed into his sax case at some point that day. He wiggled his eyebrows. "She probably hasn't gotten too far."

I glared at him, resisting the urge to bare my teeth. The good vibes Cassie had been bringing were gone and now I was getting grumpy with my fatigue. Ham just slid out of the booth, tugging the case with him. "Word of advice, kid. Don't pass up sex with a peri." Ham leaned down as he came up to my table, bracing one hand to the back of the booth and giving me a toothy smile. "Like a blue moon, it doesn't happen often, but when it does...breathtaking." With that and a wink, he left Sam's Place too, waving to Bertha on his way out. And I was left there slouching in self-doubt and wallowing in missed chances. And what the hell was I going to do about tomorrow?

My cell buzzed at my side and I fished it out of my jacket. "Yeah?"

"You want to make it fifteen?"

"All right, geez. I'll be home soon." I hung up before Niko could reply and hoisted myself onto my feet. Well, whatever happened, at least I got a free meal and a first date.


	6. Chapter 6 Cal

**CHAPTER SIX**

**CAL**

Disappointment was always one of those emotions that I was all too familiar with. I never got called first in red rover, actually I usually avoided playground games since I had a tendency to lose my temper and cause a fight. But when the other kids were playing house and tag, I was alone. I'd watch sons and daughters get picked up by their parents; mothers kissing their brows much to their chagrin, fathers ruffling their hair or tossing a ball around the trailer park. Not that I ever wanted to toss a ball around with _my_ father, but before I knew what he was, I did wonder what it would be like.

When I failed my first test my mother laughed and told me I was worthless. When I tried to get a job working at a nearby farm to help Niko with money –probably the first non-self-absorbent intention I'd had in my life– I'd been chased out by the biggest bull I'd ever seen; animals didn't like the Auphe scent much. Submissive animals ran from me and aggressive ones just got pissy and tried to kill me. It often all stemmed back to 'poor me', but I'd outplayed that tune so much that it annoyed even me now. There were still some good parts –a few, but there. And most of them were Niko's efforts.

I'd never had a birthday that Niko hadn't somehow managed to scrounge up a present or surprise. Even when I'd still been out of it and only half-remembering what was going on after my stint in Tumulus, Niko attempted to celebrate it. Living squallier in a rat-ridden studio apartment in the slums of Chicago he presented me with a single cupcake and a long match lit in the center. I blew it out, but never made a wish. At that point, I hadn't known what was left to hope or wish for. He'd always been there, always would; he made sure I knew it. And I knew no matter who came and went –if Robin remained through thick and thin, or if Promise continued being attached to Niko, or Delilah decided that she'd rather sleep with me than kill me– it would be Niko and me. Just like now.

"Can we begin? Or shall we wait for the sun to crest in the sky?"

I scowled at my brother, glancing around the park. Apparently, I'd been stood up again. Cassie was nowhere to be seen and I wasn't sure if this was a horrible thing. "Let's go."

Niko waited until I started running, gray eyes following me as I jogged passed him. We ran in silence for several miles before Niko finally stopped staring curiously at me and spoke up. He wasn't even breathless, the bastard. "I thought you didn't want to see her again."

"That was before she took me on my first date," I smirked. The syllables came out choppy with each footfall, but Niko could understand me fine. He glared at me for it. "I'm kidding." Sort of. After spending a little more time with her, I internally admitted that I was not only attracted to her, I was now intrigued by her. I wanted to see her again, _wanted _to take her up on her offer, but knew those were disastrous thoughts that shouldn't be entertained.

Niko stared forward, edging in front of me. "Just because she kissed you doesn't mean your fears are any different from yesterday." My paced slowed, until I stopped completely and leaned over my knees to catch my breath. I wasn't sure what story my face was telling at that moment, but the guilt that crossed my brother's features made me think I didn't conceal the hurt as well as I'd attempted. "Cal, you know I don't mean it like that."

"Like what?" I countered as he walked over to me; he'd only gotten a few feet in front of me before he noticed I'd stopped. "You didn't mean to remind me that I can never have a normal life? That I can't even pretend for a few hours that a girl I like won't die tomorrow just because she was seen with a half Auphe?"

"Cal."

"No, I know you don't like saying it, but it's the truth. I'm Auphe and the only reason I'm not a danger anymore it because I've been gate-neutered. And even then my presence seems to attract death and destruction like a magnet." Niko's eyes flickered side to side as if to make sure we were alone, but I didn't know who else in their right mind would be out this godforsaken hour. Even the early morning joggers weren't out yet. And then I realized a rather important tidbit of information. "I never told her what time to meet..."

Niko's expression softened, then he let out a breath that was almost a laugh. "Cal, I don't know how many times I have to tell you this, but you aren't Auphe. You aren't the monster you think you are. You're my little brother and are only a threat to the nearest cheeseburger or deep fried cardiac arrest. I'm not saying that you can't have a normal life. Normal is relative. Do you think Promise and I have a normal relationship?"

"No," I answered honestly and he smirked at my bluntness.

"I'm trying to tell you to think with your head not with your dick."

I tried not to laugh; I really did. Niko rarely used vulgarity to get his point across, but it was my native tongue so sometimes he had to stoop to my level. "I get it, Cyrano. And I'm trying. But Cassie's different. She's straight forward like Delilah, but hell, she sometimes sounds like you."

"I'm going to pretend that you didn't just compare me to a girl you're interested in sleeping with."

I gave him a jaundiced look, narrowing gray eyes that matched his. "She told me I wasn't a monster. She said she knows what the Auphe can do and I could never be one."

"I'm starting to like her."

"I think you would." Niko fell into silence; assessing me, then stretched his back and surveyed the park around us. After another moment, he motioned for us to continued running. I groaned, but reluctantly followed, endlessly playing that game of catch up with my big brother. It wasn't until the sixth mile that I felt the presence behind me. I assumed it was just another jogger at first, but when Niko veered off the usual bike path onto the hike trail less traveled –probably feeling the same– the approaching presence followed.

I didn't wear my gun while we ran. There was no fucking way I was sweating in one of my jackets in the summer heat just to hide the firearm. I still had my matte knife though and Niko had a few bladed tricks up his sleeves and sweats, probably in the braid that hung down his back as well. He kept running so I kept up and our unwelcomed company somehow ate up the ground between us. I pretended not to notice, made them think they had the upper hand, waited until I could hear the measured breath, then—

I stopped short, straining my hamstring a little in the process, but spared it nothing more than a flinch, before I unsheathed the knife at my belt and swung it back. If it was just another jogger, Niko wouldn't have diverted us to a less populated trail and if I was making a mistake the blade would only slice into their shoulder. If I wasn't making a mistake and the Kin had sent some other Fido to take me out, I had the full intention of wrenching the blade inward to the heart.

The black knife caught nothing but air though, shocking me. I had precision; I was taught by my brother, which meant I was taught by the best, but I'd still missed. How?

The air rushed to my unarmed side and before I could swing the knife in that direction, something warm and soft clamped down on my throat and a hard weight took me down. The uneven ground drove the wind out of my lungs and I saw stars for a moment. A quick blurred movement and whoever was on top of me had stopped Niko's attack with just her wrist to his. I blinked the black dots away and saw gold eyes flashing at my brother. A pair of thick white wings rocked at her back, kissed with charcoal gray veins. She was stunning; that girl next door thing gone in her bad-ass glare.

"Cassie," I wheezed out. She and Nik seemed to be in a stalemate, or they both just paused to determine what the other wanted. Cassie obviously, just took me out to stop me from attacking her and she was also unarmed as far as I could tell. There wasn't much room to hide anything in her sweat shorts and tight tank top, at least. Still bracing her wrist to Niko's to keep his dagger at a distance, Cassie held up her other hand in surrender.

"All right, big brother. I know I'm late, but I didn't think it was that big a deal." She tried to speak with flippant humor, but her smile wavered and her eyes darkened to their previous deep mahogany color. Ishiah's did that too, from bluish gray to vivid gold in a flash of temper. Cassie's was just as obvious a change and I just contributed it to her being peri.

"Get off, my brother."

"As soon as you back off. I'm not going to hurt him. I just thought it an opportune moment to prove a point," she told him and emphasized her claim by ruffling her wings and promptly making them disappear. Her wrist shook when Niko pulled back, showing just how much pressure they'd been forcing against one another. She kept both hands up for Niko's sake, then looked down at me, who she was still straddling. Her cunning smile returned. "Told you, you're not a threat to me."

"I wasn't expecting to be plowed down by Lara Croft. Was that your leg you tried to strangle me with?" She laughed at me and rose to her feet. I accepted her offered hand and let her haul me up, startled by her strength as well as her agility; she wasn't tiny, but then again I wasn't the buck ten she looked.

I stood awkwardly in front of her for a moment, working out a crick in my neck. A little more than pleasantly surprised that she showed up, but much more concerned that I'd tried to shove a knife in her heart. Well, at least, I knew she could take care of herself.

"So how many more miles we got?" She asked, breaking the silence.

"Four," Niko intoned, flipping his blade back into hiding under his shirt and extending the same hand out to Cassie. "It's nice to see you again."

She took his hand. "You too, good form by the way. If you'd wanted to, you would have broken my wrist with that move." I found myself staring blatantly at her bare legs as she spoke to Nik. She was probably as pale as me, but somehow it didn't make her look like a pasty white kid. It was creamy on her, like Promise. And toned…with a pert round ass and a little peak of flesh exposed at her hips. Cassie flicked one foot in my direction, knocking her sneaker against my calf. "You've been out of the game for too long, lamb."

"Hey, I said I wasn't expecting—"

"Never expect," Cassie countered and stepped up in front of me. Almost against me. She pointed a finger to my chest like a gun. "That's always when things blow up in your face. Trust and follow your instincts, always." Well, that didn't work when my instincts told me to travel behind the enemy and slash them open with black claws the length of a ruler, the former of which I could no longer do without killing myself and the latter of which I didn't have at my human body's disposal.

"Besides," Cassie went on. She hooked her finger at the collar of my shirt and pulled down so I had to bow to keep it from stretching. She tilted her face up a little; that clever smirk just inches from mine and her dark eyes hooded in playfulness. "That wasn't the game I was talking about. You haven't seen your Wolf friend in a few days, have you?"

I lifted my eyes to meet hers. I wasn't embarrassed that she knew I was a little pent up; I was never one to hide those types of emotions. "I guess I was saving myself for a better offer."

Nik cleared his throat, but that didn't stop Cassie from dotting a short kiss to my mouth. She skipped back from me, then jogged in a circle around my brother. "Are we running or not?" Niko shot me a warning look, which said clearly he didn't trust her quite yet, but I certainly didn't care when I got to watch her form running a pace ahead of me.

We finished up the ten mile run with me being the only one leaning wearily against a park bench. Cassie seemed up for another ten (granted, she only ran four) and, other than gulping down a half a water bottle, Niko looked no worse for the wearer. I flopped down on the park bench, but Cassie's foot caught me behind the knee and her hand tugged me up by the back of my shirt. "You'll cramp. Stay upright, little lamb."

I scowled. Great, now I had two Nikos to lecture me about my health and hygiene. I reminded myself to make sure she never set foot in my bedroom. Niko's mouth was at that half grin, amused by Cassie, but still unsure. They'd been running side by side the whole time, close enough that I was pretty sure they were feeling each other out. Whatever had transpired made them both loosen up, so I wasn't complaining.

"So I was wondering," Cassie mused as she fixed her blond ponytail of fly aways. "New York's a big damned city and since you know him...maybe you could help me find Robin?"

"Sure," I replied, feigning a few stretches so they wouldn't nag me. All I wanted to do was take a shower and dive for the couch. "I'll take you to his work place after I pass out for the next few hours." She pouted. Damn it, how could she look so sexy when in mid-fight and so adorable when she wanted her way. This was going be dangerous. "But instead I'll meet you at sixth street station in an hour after I put on clothes not dripping with sweat?"

Cassie chuckled. "Thank you." She caught my mouth again. I wasn't even sure how she'd crossed the space between us so quickly. Again, not complaining. When she parted, her dark eyes alight with mischief, she smacked my cheek just enough that it stung lightly and winked at me. "By the way, an Auphe would never cave at a pout, little lamb."

She called the nickname from over her shoulder as she walked passed me and toward the park exit. Niko actually wet his lips to keep from grinning. "Still like her?" I asked grumpily.

"More and more," Nik replied. 

Cassie was waiting for me at the station when I arrived ten minutes early. Yeah, me. Early. It was a new sensation and I was fairly certain Niko had something to do with that. He joined us on this pilgrimage, even calling out from his TA job. His trust only went so far.

"Hey," I called when she glanced up from the bench she was relaxing on. She stood up, hair draped over her shoulders in two thick braids and body clothed in a cinched-waist black and gray dress. It was simple and with the pigtail braids, made her look like a prime target for someone with a Lolita complex or a casual mugger. And me, apparently.

"You're early," she said with a ring of surprise. Her heels clicked along the concrete with the skirt flowing about those still exposed milky-toned legs. "I have to say I didn't expect that."

"Never expect," I tossed back in her face with a smirk. She snorted and grabbed my hand, eagerly dragging me toward the tram that just pulled up. Niko followed after without a word; studying her like a cat would a rodent before it determined if it was food, friend, or foe. Granted, with Niko it would probably turn into something caught between the second two.

I could smell her shampoo as we crammed in with the morning commute. She still smelled like earthbound flowers and her body was a welcomed warmth against my chest even in the sardine-packed tin car. "What's with the chaperoned? Afraid I wouldn't behave?" Her shoulder nudged my arm and she grinned. I bent to speak into her ear, not so much so Nik couldn't hear, but because I was curious to see her reaction. Plus I really wanted to envelope that intoxicating scent around me.

"Nik's just cautious. We'll ditch him later." I was teasing her and by my tone she knew. She still tugged at a piece of my dark hair that fell wetly to my jawline, bringing her mouth against the shell of my ear. Between the heat of her breath, the sensation of her full lips and my own pent up frustration, I nearly gasped.

"Don't tease," she whispered. Her dark eyes fixed on mine when she pulled back, almost warning me to behave. "Besides, unless you're planning on sleeping over at Robbie's place tonight, I doubt you'll want to join me."

"Will he be there?" I challenged. Cassie laughed softly. She didn't reply, but it was rhetorical anyway. Of course, Robin would be at his apartment with Cassie. I'd seen his expression when I told him she was alive and I didn't see that raw emotion on the puck's face very often. And Cassie couldn't contain her excitement either, though it was more subtle than clutching my shoulders and grinning like a Cheshire cat. Cassie just watched the stations pass with impatience and fixed her dress with nervous hands. I didn't mind when she adjusted the top, since it gave me a brief view down it, but after the fifth time I had to stop her.

"Cassie, calm down." I pried her hands off the waist of the dress and cupped them both in mine. "What are you nervous about?"

Cassie bit her full lower lip. "I kind of abandoned him…once or twice. You can't do that to a friend, then expect them to welcome you back with open arms."

"Goodfellow was happy you were alive. He ran off as soon as I told him, probably to find you." I felt Nik's eyes on us, but ignored him. Comforting was neither of our forte. "And you won me over after one meeting, how could he not resist only one punch to the face for leaving him before he hugs you?"

Cassie's smile was soft, but there. "Thank you, little lamb." She pressed up on the toes of her heels so we were almost eye level and knocked her forehead to mine. "Thank you for everything."

I bent and took her lips; it seemed like an opportune moment and they were just so inviting. Cassie grinned against my mouth, but renewed the connection with her fingers gripping at the lapels of my jacket. The subway lurched to another stop, but Cassie managed to keep our mouths locked together even as I stumbled back against the vertical hand bar in the center of the aisle. Niko didn't clear his throat this time, not that I would have heard it very well in the din of the crowded tram car, but he did smack me upside the back of my head.

"We're here." He managed to scold me in that single phrase and purposefully had Cassie leave the subway first so he could walk between us. Robin's car lot was six blocks from the subway station; Cassie refused to walk it in silence.

"So how did you guys meet Robin and Uncle Ish?"

"Robin helped us out with a few jobs, Ishiah we met through Robin at the bar where Cal works."

I glanced at Niko between us. He didn't seem particularly angry, just disquieted. I didn't know if it was because I was rushing into another possibly violent-ending relationship or if he just didn't like that he liked Cassie. Nik had liked Georgina; encouraged me to accept her even, but she was human, and she kept secrets from me, and somehow I just knew I'd end up killing her without conscious intention one day. He had liked George, but George was human; Cassie was not. As seen by the impressive spread of wings she'd shown in the park. Cassie emphasized my status among the supernatural community, while George had 'made me more human'.

"And by helped us, Niko means saved our asses. By a few jobs, he means a few times averting the apocalypse, and by…well, no, the rest is boringly accurate."

Niko opened the glass doors for Cassie, and let me through as well. I raised my brow at him asking him without words why he was so disturbed. He shook his head minutely to indicate he would like to talk to me about it later. So I entered the dealership and caught Cassie by the waist before she wandered off in the wrong direction. "What?"

"His office is that way," I told her, pointing down the side hall. Cassie patted me on the chest smiling. Then she slipped out of my hold and kept walking toward the showroom. It wasn't until I followed after a few steps that I could separate Robin's distinctive smell from the other humans milling around. She's apparently caught it before me and I paused beside her to watch Robin Goodfellow, or, at the dealership, Rob Fellows, in action.

He stood with his usual confidence beside the newest, shiny sports car on the market and a man in a pressed suit probably as expensive as Goodfellow's own. The puck wore it much better than the portly Italian man; expressive green eyes brightened by the navy of his jacket and his smile one hundred and fifty watts.

He touched a hand to Mr. Mafia's shoulder and guided him around to the driver's side, opening the door and continuing to ramble on about horse power and the dozens of add ons Niko and I would never have in a car. When the man toddled into the seat, Cassie dotted a kiss to my cheek, then departed to walk across the showroom. Her hands clasped behind her back, which brought my attention down and I couldn't help but watch her leave me with a tilted head. Another smack to the back of my skull from Niko. "What?"

Niko said nothing so I returned to watching Cassie sneak up behind her former best friend. There was still hesitation in her step which prevented her from bounding into his arms with her usual vibrancy. She stopped behind him, interrupting his spiel with that bright cadence of sultry and sweet mixed. "Excuse me, I'm looking for something that purrs like a kitten and rides like a bat out of hell."

Robin glanced up with his car salesman smile, but it dropped in the next moment. And as I thought it might, Cassie's fears of rejection disappeared the following second when Robin let off a little breath that formed her name and scooped her up into his arms. She laughed musically, arms wrapped around his shoulder. He spun her, kissed her, and held her face in his hands. "I can't believe it. Look at you."

"Alive and kicking," she replied.

"How'd you find me?"

She nodded her head toward us, and Nik took that as a cue to approach. Robin's smile lit up his handsome features as he reached out to take Niko's hand. "Thank you, Niko, Cal. I'm not sure how else I would have found her. She can effectively disappear like a ghost of Roanoke Island." He turned back to Cassie, shaking his head, then kissing her forehead. "I thought you were dead."

Without a word of encouragement, one of Robin's co-workers slipped behind him to help the fat Italian out of the yellow penis enhancement with an engine. Respectfully, Robin excused himself from the patron and guided Cassie closer to Niko and I so the other salesman could close the deal. The entire time he didn't stop touching Cassie, as if he were trying to prove she was really there. And Cassie leaned to his shoulder like she was an old lover.

"Well," I cleared my throat and shoved my hands in the pockets of my jeans. "The couriers have completed their mission. I believe it's nap time for me now." Niko gave me an arch look. Robin seemed just as confused by the comment, but Cassie took it in stride like every other awkward moment.

She slipped out of Robin's grip and caught a sleeve to both my jacket and Niko's trench coat; I was surprised he let her. "Lunch, at least. As a thank you. Please." Niko's eyes slid to their sides to leave the ball in my court and I wasn't sure how much of the Robin and Cassie show I could handle. She turned her attention to me when it was clear that I was to make the decision and I floundered under those mahogany eyes.

"Only if you're paying." Cassie bounced on her sandals and gave me another peck on my cheek. And I avoided Niko's amused look. Hopefully, this would be as entertaining as Robin always seemed to think his lunch dates were.

And it certainly was, because with Cassie there we got to hear a whole other side of the story. It had been an exceptionally long time since I'd laughed aloud, let alone as much as I had that lunch. And I don't remember the last time Niko had ever let his laugh be heard. Robin took us to a place that would never be in my price range for as long as I lived, made sure the garcon placed us in the back of the restaurant, and proceeded to buy a huge list of food and drink for us.

I never thought I would attempt to eat squid, but I found that deep fried it was delicious.

"Oh, don't lie." Cassie cried out and smacked Robin's shoulder. She turned back to us with a wicked grin. "He played no part in that, don't let him fool you."

"Where else would he get the idea for a puck? One of my brothers?" Robin scoffed. "They are hardly the specimen I am."

"I'll give you that, Robbie. You are one special kind of moron."

I nearly spewed my beer over the rim of the glass -yes, glass. It was that kind of restaurant. "I knew Shakespeare! The fool borrowed fifty quid from me and kicked it before paying back the debt! He was viewed as a lunatic for a century after his death and now he's famous, the twat."

"Jealous?" Cassie teased.

"Hardly. He could never hope to understand the infamy of the puck."

"Oh yes, the great and true tales of the ever horny goatman," I added, partially under my breath. The table heard me though and Cassie snickered.

"Please tell me that goat-legged image still haunts him, because that would make my day." Goodfellow glared daggers at Cassie as she covered her mouth in order not to laugh out-rightly.

"And whose fault is that, hm? Whose fault is it that all the pucks are seen historically as these outrageous buffoons with horns poking out of manes and a little waggling goat tail piping away on some damned loot made out of bamboo? Hm? Who?"

"I do believe 'I thought it was a good idea at the time' applies here," Cassie replied. Robin whipped at her with his cotton napkin. "Hey, I never forced you to wear those chaps. You thought you were going to make the fashion statement of the century."

"As my best friend it was your job to inform me that it would destroy any semblance of respect I had." My sides hurt from holding in my laughter and I could see the obvious creases in the corners of Niko's eyes. I remembered Robin scowling and complaining that he'd worn fur chaps 'one time' and thereafter emerged the folklore of pucks being half goat and here we were seeing that Cassie had been by his side when he chose that outlandish ensemble and let him make the horrible decision for the sheer amusement factor.

By her uncontrolled laughter, I was pretty sure she knew well what a dent it would make in Robin's reputation. "Oh my goodness, it stuck?"

"It stuck," Robin admitted with a growl. Cassie continued gasping for breath and leaned into my shoulder to try and calm herself.

"There are depictions if you'd care to see them. I found them exceedingly enlightening," Niko joined in with a raised brow and an easy dodge of Robin's fist.

"You're turning them against me," Robin huffed. "I can't believe you're turning them against me. And you're laughing." He poked at Niko's arm. He shook his head so the curls bounced, but couldn't erase the half grin on his own face. "I think we should discuss that miracle." He motioned to Niko, but his green eyes focused on Cassie at my side. "You got him laughing. Do you know how long I've been trying to get a smile on this stoic face?"

"Probably about as long as you've been trying to get into his pants," Cassie offered. Her head was still resting on my shoulder and I wasn't about to shift and remove it. Her scent was all around me and since I was done eating the weight didn't obscure anything I needed. I could drink with my other hand.

Goodfellow leaned back in his chair and tossed his napkin onto his empty plate. "You think that little of me? That I would attempt to sully my only friends?" I watched Niko's hand find the bridge of his long nose to pinch it and hide from the conversation. Cassie lifted her head and looked up at me for vindication. I smiled, but didn't exactly dismiss Robin's lie. It was enough for Cassie though and she wagged her finger at the puck.

"Lies don't suit you, Robbie. Exaggeration…epic exaggeration is fine, but I will not tolerate lies. You look me in the eye and tell me didn't try to jump Niko."

"What makes you think I would be after Niko?" Robin challenged.

"Because you're scared shitless of what a half Auphe would do to you in bed," Cassie offered. The slight didn't even sting coming from her mouth. "And because Niko's got blond hair, sharp features, a long Roman nose, and a stony personality that you so desperately want to crack. Hmm…," her full lips puckered as she pretended to contemplate this. "Now whoever does this remind me of?"

"Don't go there," Goodfellow warned.

"Oh, I will. Just keep lying to me."

"Me lie?" It was like watching a tennis match, only a hell of a lot more entertaining. "The saint doth have the same sins. Where have you been for the last three, four hundred years, pray-tell? Vacationing in the Virgin Isles?"

I felt it; the quick tension in Cassie's body. Her features lost their luminescence in an instant and her eyes went dark. "Robin, don't." I watched her instead of our puck friend. He did exaggerate and embellish, but on the stuff that counted he never lied to us. Cassie was a creature still new to me and I knew little to nothing about her. I knew she wasn't ready for the great reveal and I certainly didn't want to hear it in the middle of a fancy restaurant, but here it came.

"No, tell me. What was so important that you had to leave me right when I made one of the dumbest decisions of my life? Where were you when that mistake came back to bite me in the ass in the form of a bullet to the neck? And the dozen or so other times you vanished like a bad magic act? Where were you when the Cheris clan claimed you dead? Three hundred years without one word."

I pressed my mouth closed to refrain from making any comments. Robin's darkest secret had been one he'd hidden for a millennium. Playing god to a naïve people he took a maiden that had not wanted to be taken and it led to her death and many others. It wasn't entirely his fault, but he would never listen to such comforts. He blamed himself to the point that he kept it from Niko and me in fear that we would judge him. Until the descendants of those naïve people tried to take him out, one monster at a time. In the end it was the end of their line and Robin was reassured that Niko and I trusted him more than a few skeletons left exposed.

He'd never shown such passion regarding the incident though, never placed that kind of dependence on Niko or me. And Cassie looked crushed by the pressure of it, eyes shinning in the lowlight. I put my beer back on the table. "I think that's enough drinking." I said, trying to pull Robin's away from him. It took at least a bottle of whiskey to turn the puck green, but he was on his way and obviously emotions were high.

Robin removed his hand from the glass, letting me pilfer it. "It doesn't matter, I'm done." He turned his gaze on Cassie, attempting a softer look more suited for his features. "I'm sorry, Cas, that was uncalled for."

"I think we need to talk about it," Cassie replied gently. "But not here." She focused on me and offered a small smile, a fraction of the brightness it was before. "I'm sorry, little lamb, but I think I should go with Robin. We have a lot to catch up on."

Fine by me, I didn't need anymore drama in my life. Without a word, Niko rose from the table, thanked Robin for the meal and Cassie for the company, then made his way toward the exit. I returned Cassie's smile and leaned over to press a kiss to her temple. I felt her close her eyes and let out a soft breath. "You staying with Robin for now?"

She nodded and I smiled a bit wider. "Good, then I'll know where to find you."

I stood from the table, tossing the napkin on my own plate and headed out after my brother. He met me at the entrance not speaking until we were waiting for the subway. "She's hiding something."

"Everyone's hiding something," I replied. My hands were in my pockets and my back slouched. Niko probably knew that it bothered me more than I was admitting even to myself that she wouldn't come clean, but what did I expect? She'd met me only weeks ago. I certainly wasn't going to spill my life story to her. Hell, there were things I still kept secret from Niko. "There's a difference between her and everyone else though." Niko asked me what that was with just a look. I answered with confidence I probably shouldn't have had. "She doesn't want to hide it anymore. She's just looking for the right time, the right people. How long did it take us to figure out who we could trust?"

Niko took a long breath in through his nose and let it out his mouth with a shake of his head. "Shit." I blinked; Niko didn't curse so casually often. His gray eyes caught mine as the tram pulled up. "I can't believe you fell for a peri."

My stomach dropped to me knees. Niko had to pull me into the car by my jacket before the doors closed. All I could hear was Cassie's lilting voice teasing me in my head: 'Have you ever seen an Auphe fall in love?'


	7. Chapter 7 Robin

**CHAPTER SEVEN**

**ROBIN**

If there was one thing I could say about Castiella of the Cheris clan, one thing both virtue and vice, it would be that she never stopped speaking her mind. She talked almost as much as I did, which left little room for others to lift their voice once we got started. We had so many laughs together, so many audiences enrapt by our spun adventure or even just our shooting the bull. She never hid who she was, never hindered herself in the presences of anyone or anything. And that was what made her absolutely beautiful.

So when she was quiet, I could see how easily she used to slip into the throngs of humans she once wished she could be.

Her cherub face was down turned as she riffled through her beat-up duffle bag. The tasteless thing was propped up on a spare chair in the guest room of my apartment. She jokingly refused to accompany me in my bed with claims that I might take advantage of her, but I was beginning to wonder. It seemed more like she feared the company, either for her own self-preservation or for my protection from her. Such didn't settle well and my assumptions of where she might have been all these centuries made the perfectly cooked filet mignon sit uneasy in my stomach.

Her reaction at the restaurant was as uncharacteristic as my own. I had no idea how much her disappearances had hurt me until that moment. She'd had mastered the vanishing act long before we'd met, and practiced it on me only thrice. Of course, each time she left I'd messed up in the worst way. And in the restaurant, it suddenly didn't matter that whatever she was enduring might have been worse. I'd lost it. Pent up emotions always flowed like a broken dam when pierced by the thinnest of needles. And after several moments alone at the Dwarde, we'd gathered ourselves and left smiling and teasing each other again. Fights never lasted long between us, neither of us had the attention span for it.

I watched her from the threshold as she unpacked. Salome was curled up on one of the guest bed's pillows, purring to herself. She had been trailing after Cassie from the moment we walked into the apartment. Cassie probably smelled like both food and foe to her and the compromise was slave. Either that or my pet was just desperate for another female to be in the house…it'd been a while. When I leaned against the doorframe Salome's eternally flickering eyes peered up at me for a moment, before she gave a malignant sort of smile and curled back up.

Cassie knew I was there too, not ignoring me, but waiting for my voice to break the silence as it usually did. I didn't want it to be that way though. As much as it pained me, I kept my mouth shut.

Oh, Caliban would be so proud. The puck was silent. Cassie pulled out her clothes and hung them on the hangers left free in the closet. Half of it was occupied by my winter clothes, all covered in plastic and awaiting the chillier months to come, but it was enough space for her meager array of rags with a few cute dresses to give me faith that she still had style. It sickened me that there were still empty hangers once she was done. Her wardrobe could barely last her a week without reuse.

I shifted and had to bite my lip to refrain from saying something about it. I used to love playing dress up with her. She was like a little doll. Not too short, per se, but lean with thin limbs and a tight flat core. Anything outside of a moo-moo or those tacky velour track suits would look fantastic on her. And over the centuries she let me dress her in pretty much anything, not caring what she looked like as long as she had fun. She seemed a little thinner, I now noticed. I tilted my head, much thinner.

"Cassie," I said.

She laughed, a small thing reminiscent of the true action. "Knew you couldn't resist."

"You said we'd talk."

She dropped a bra back in her bag. Great goddess, help me, she only had two of them and they were as plain as a muslin sheath. "I know. I just don't know where to start. So much has happened while I was gone. I missed most of it. These last few decades...things have been progressing so fast." She glanced up at me and let off a short laugh. It was strained, like she was either near tears or a mental breakdown. "Yesterday I saw a shop promoting a three dimensional television screen. Last I saw they were strange squat things that had hazardous tubes running inside them. Black and white to 3D. I mean I saw the changes when I visited, but it just seems…"

I narrowed my eyes. It was a quick procession, yes, but it had been at least fifty years in the making. Cassie was speaking as if it were days. "And these things that are attached to every human's ear...communicating without phone lines. I'm lost, Robin. Everything is so strange and then Cal..." She stopped herself and ran a hand over her round face.

I had to smile. I'd seen her in the restaurant. She could barely keep her hands off of Caliban. It was adorable. I hadn't seen her be so affectionate with someone other than me since Marlowe in the Golden Era. And that bastard had turned her in to the Lediss clan (whom she nearly slaughtered by herself) for a purse of poker chips in the pot. It warmed me, because I knew well Cal was a better man than Marlowe. Regardless to how much the boy thought he was Auphe, it was those human emotions that kept him here, present, and catching Cassie's eye.

Over the years I'd known him and Niko –far less than those I'd known Cassie, granted– I saw the power of his protective and compassionate instincts. He'd never admit to them, no, but they were there and I could easily see them focusing on my dear friend. And the thought was a pleasant one. They would be damned near perfect for each other and then Niko would have some more fire power at his side to keep the idiot half Auphe out of his grave.

"You like him," I stated with relish and a bit of teasing. She'd never chosen someone before. Marlowe had been my idea, Sevintus had been my encouragement, and Eliana had just been me wanting Cassie to explore her feminine wiles. The list went on a little ways and all of them had ended in disaster, sometimes blood, and once an all out war. Albeit, not directly my fault, but I still held myself accountable. Cassie had so much blood on her hands because of me, in defense of me, in protection for me. Now she needed me and I needed to put those petty thoughts of abandonment aside. "I'm pretty sure he likes you too."

"I'm pretty sure he just really needs to get laid," Cassie countered. Amazing how a creature brimming full with confidence, could doubt her appeal on a deeper level.

"Cas, if all he wanted was to get laid, he would go to Delilah."

"That the Wolf?"

My lips parted, staring at her and studying closer at that tone. "Cassie," I whispered out in shock, clasping a hand to my chest to mock her. She flashed her dark eyes in my direction, then hid them from view in embarrassment.

"What? I just don't trust Wolves." Sevintus had been a werewolf, before she gutted him from jowl to tail for kidnapping a dozen small children from a local village and eating several of them with the torturous relish of Charles Manson. It was the last time I ever suggested a roll in the sack with a pup, though I believed she continued to have sex with them if the mood suited her. She just never trusted one. "Besides I hear the Kin are focused here now, which means she's probably one of them and therefore Cal should be cautious. They have no concerns other than themselves and an Alpha position."

"I can't believe it," I chuckled. I pushed off the threshold and entered the room. Cassie continued to avoid my scrutinizing look as she pushed the rest of her clothes around the duffel ineffectually. She didn't have anymore to hang up, and the dresser was filled with my belongings so she couldn't put anything else away to busy her hands. "He's only in his twenties, Cassie."

"Since when has that mattered, puck?"

"He's half Auphe." I didn't say it as a point against him. I'd come to terms with that part of Cal, even if he did inspire the fright of a Holocaust victim in me when he lost his grasp on reality. He'd come back, always. And now that healer Wolf, Rafferty, had a leash on that gating of his, I felt much more comfortable around the kid. I said it more as a reminder for Cassie. As a friend you were supposed to point out all the obvious things that the other was trying with every fiber to ignore.

"Which means what?" Cassie snapped; peri temper flaring. It was so adorable when that happened. Her lower lip jutted out ever so slightly and she tried to make up some girth by placing her hands on her hips. The only half intimidating feature was the flashing gold eyes, and honestly I would have even laughed at that, if I hadn't seen her tear a Buggane limb from limb without a weapon. Other then her body, of course.

"I just don't want that to be the reason you attach yourself to him. Caliban as been through a lot—"

"Caliban?" she interrupted. "His mother named him Caliban?" I wasn't lying when I claimed to know Shakespeare and Cassie had met him too, fond of his work when no one else shared the appreciation, including myself. _Mid-Summer's Night Dream_ and _The Tempest _were her favorites; while she told William that _Romeo and Juliet_ was ridiculous and a sheer flight of fancy. Cassie knew the implication behind naming Cal after the half demon creature shackled to serving Prospero. Of course, I doubted that Cal's mother ever stopped to consider the insult it was to her as well. Then again, from what I'd gathered she _was _a horrible witch that bedded with the devil.

Cassie shoved a sock into the bottom of her bag with violence. Several peri curses slipped from her lips and I had to smile. It was too late for the warning label. If she was disquieted enough to be cursing Cal's mother's name then she already had invested herself completely. "Calling him that to imply he's a monster, the cruelty of it. He isn't a monster. Just look into his eyes and there is so much humanity there. _He_ doesn't even see it. And it's that pure naivety, that humility..."

"I'm not sure if humility is the right word."

Cassie glared. "He's your friend."

"Yes."

"So why are you warning me to stay away from him?"

"I don't want either of you to get hurt." My honest answer had her shoulders straighten to a line. She paused, took stock of her far from vintage bag, then chose her second most obvious nervous gesture. She took one long braid in hand and started to undo the weaving. With a sigh, I went over and sat on the bed. I still didn't have a full time housekeeper after Seraglio tried to kill me, but I did have a maid come by once a week, so the guest room sheets were clean even if my room probably smelled deliciously of me and Ishiah; maybe that was why she didn't want to sleep there.

"Cas," I patted the mattress beside me and she complied, still working the plaits out of her hair. It unraveled in loose waves of mixed blonds and chestnuts. I always loved her hair. The color was such a burst of deep autumn, where everything was almost dead, but still beautiful. "Ishiah asked me to keep the two of you from meeting for the same reason. I fear where this is going. You and Cal..." I felt my instincts cringe at what I was doing. This was the perfect means to keep my friends close _and_ kick their sexually depravity out the window. The two of them would have so much carnal fun. Cassie, living under my tutelage for so long, knew so many skills that would blow Caliban's mind. And Cal, well, even if he knew every lick of Castiella's lengthy biography, I knew he would accept her. And that of itself would make her swoon; she was too easy to please sometimes.

"I know it's a mistake," Cassie groaned. She kicked off her sneakers and leaned back on her arms once her braids were out. "I know I'm a danger to him. To you, to whoever I lay a lingering eye on, but I can't live like this. You know me, I hate hiding. I hate not being myself. I left because I was trying to make the peris eat their words."

"Which ones? 'You can't defeat us' or 'die, you unclean thing'? Because _I_ was pretty sure it was the latter that you finished up for them three hundred years ago."

"'You are not peri'." Her words were stern and clipped; an impression of Michael, the eldest of the Cheris brothers. Her back curved when she sighed, head bowed and long locks cascading to the bed. "Figured if I destroyed every bit that wasn't peri, they'd have to leave me alone. It was a bigger project than I anticipated."

I studied her, pieces finally fitting together. The last time I saw her, she told me she was leaving to visit family and would be gone for some time. Years when by, then decades. And after one hundred, I lost hope of ever seeing my Cassie again. I thought the peri clans had finally managed to kill her and Ishiah did nothing to sway that assumption. I poured my fear and rage onto him and for some reason he acted as if he owed me a debt that could never be repaid. I used it, got my way, treated him like a slave sometimes and two hundred years later forced him to hire Cal at his bar for the same imaginary debt.

All this time, why hadn't he corrected me? Unless he hadn't know the fate of his niece and assumed it was his brothers that had completed the task of the clans before them? And Cassie...all this time she'd been racing through the places of her nightmares, alone, and I'd resented her for it because I thought she'd gone and died on me.

She shuddered on the bed next to me, eyes lost in whatever darkness she recalled. I placed a hand to her back, threading fingers through her long hair and tugging. "Forget what I said," I told her. She survived in more ways than I knew and more ways than any of us could. To live through the horrors her bloodline bestowed upon her and come out more or less sane; I couldn't hope for more. "Cal's perfect for you. Though I will warn you, try as I might, he's sorrowfully inexperienced in bed. And he's lazy. Never cleans up his room. Oh, and he's nearly died three times."

"He told me five," Cassie snickered, coming back to me. She wrapped her arms around me from the side, pulling her legs up on the bed and tucking her head along the length of my neck. "I want to tell him. Everything."

I breathed in her shampoo and natural scent of Hawthorne flowers. It was a scent I used to dream about; waking from adventurous nights of ecstasy or existentialism. I searched for her through what ever dwelling I'd chosen that lifetime. I knew what it was like for Niko to wake and fear that Cal was gone forever because I came down to that reality every day Castiella was gone. And I never wanted to feel it again.

"Wait a little while. At least, until the order of the feathers skips town," I pleaded. The last thing I needed was Caliban becoming protective of Cassie when the Cheris boys decided to dive bomb her. Niko and Cal would slice through their clan without a thought and I wasn't sure which side would survive...no, scratch that. Niko and Cal would win with Cassie on their side, but I didn't want to pick up the peri-pieces.

"I thought the same. Uncle Ish doesn't want me revealing who I am to anyone. He said there are other things in this city that could cause me harm. The Vigil?"

I tilted my head in consideration. I never thought Ishiah held concern for the Vigil. Most disregarded them; they were strictly human and often defenseless against most creatures of the night. But they'd also supplied Niko and Cal with a suitcase nuke that ultimately ended the Auphe, which led me to believe they had more tricks up their sleeves than Houdini. They observed the things that went bump in the night with careful eyes and if they knew the power Cassie contained behind innocent pigtails and a charming smile they might attempt to end her as eagerly as the peris. What a blood bath that would be; worse than the Battle of Thermopylae.

"Avoid them if you can," I agreed. "But don't avoid Cal. I haven't seen him so upbeat since he was gating and we stopped that after he eviscerated a doe. It was a little alarming then, but with you he just seems happy not on the verge of an Auphe breakdown."

"You stopped him?" She asked it with alarmed question. Pulling back from me I saw the disquiet in her dark eyes. To her it was as if we clipped his wings and to him that was a fair description.

"He became a danger to himself and us. He couldn't control it with just his human half to tilt the scale. A healer set a bomb in his head; a kill switch. Each time he gates he gets an overdose of serotonin. Heart accelerates and it gives him an incapacitating migraine. Too many times and he's dead. He wanted it that way," I told her when she gave me an affronted look. "I think it scared him as well. Now he has a safety net that assures him he can never harm his brother."

Cassie fell silent and stared at our knees. She didn't agree, as obvious by her frown; a full lipped pout that had apparently enamored Caliban successfully. She dropped her forehead to my shoulder. "I'm sorry I left you when you needed me."

"It was worse when I didn't need you," I confessed. I kissed her dark blond crown and patted her bare knee. "But you'll make it up to me. Tomorrow you have to endure the longest shopping trip of your life."

"Longer than Prague?"

I snickered. "Oh, yes. By far." 

I left her, tucked under the sheets of the guest bed and fiddling with the remote control as if she'd never used one before. If she had been stowed away where I thought she might have been all these years, then she very well might not be used to the several dozen buttons on a universal. I let her explore it; slipped into my own room to change. It was barely dinner time and while Cassie seemed ready for a night in quiet solitude with a hairless cat in her lap. I was too wound for such a quaint idea. She shooed me out, telling me to go to Ishiah, she'd be fine.

I didn't doubt that. My apartment was equipped with any necessity one might need from food, to television, to a sex swing (which unfortunately, hadn't been used in a while). So I slipped on my Louis Viton shirt and Hugo slacks, kissed Cassie goodbye and went to Ish's place. After several hours of raucous sex that would put Casanova to shame, never mind that the over-stated prick's wit outlasted his bedroom antics every time, I laid on the bed beside Ishiah and confessed, "Cassie's at my place."

Ishiah lifted his head, craning it to see me as I threaded my fingers through his still present wings sprawled out beneath us. After a moment's pause, he rested his head back to the pillow and grunted his acceptance of this. We both knew she was better off with me. The peris liked to pretend pucks didn't exist, which was getting harder now that one of us was sleeping with their brother. "She's already met Cal."

Another grunt, though this was more a pained groan. "I asked you—"

"I didn't set it up, Ishiah. They found each other. Actually Cal told me he met her at _your_ bar." Ishiah shifted onto his elbows and wriggled his wings out from under me so he could effectively make them disappear. He gave me that grouchy look where his dark eyebrows pulled together and the frown lines at the sides of his mouth deepened. I couldn't help, but crawl up his solid chest and kiss him. "You can't stop it, Ishiah. How long did we try? And here we are."

He cupped my jaw and tilted his chin up to part my lips. My eyes drifted shut, still glowing from our last connection, but certainly not refusing another helping. Ishiah pulled me back by my hair before I could draw my lips any lower than his collarbone though. I felt the sting of the curls being pulled at my scalp and I doubted it was creating the reaction Ishiah wanted. "They cannot mate, Robin. You know how cataclysmic that would be."

I frowned and tried to shake him off my head. "What does it matter? Cassie can't have kids."

"And how many believe that?"

I glared; horniness staved for the moment. "I believe that. I know that. There wasn't much in the form of contraception when you're holed up in some village off the west coast of Pangaea." Ishiah gave me a dubious look for the exaggeration. I hadn't known Cassie _that _long ago. "Cassie can't get pregnant. Her body has no eggs; she can't produce them. She even had a healer tell her that."

"I know," Ishiah countered. He let go of my hair and touched the same hand to my cheek. "I never said I didn't believe it, but there are many that won't. And for her to mate with Caliban...the offspring that they could never have will still strike fear in the hearts of the desperate. Just seeing them together will draw those conclusions. Never place the targets so close together, Robin. Never."

"Did she tell you where she was all this time?"

Ishiah's blue-gray eyes hooded, then closed with a sigh. That was an affirmative to my question as well as proving my own assumptions true. "Don't you think it's about time for her to be able to live? Not just survive? She's paid her dues. More than her fair share."

"My brothers and the kindred of the clans she killed do not agree," Ishiah warned. He pressed a firm kiss to my lips, then slipped out from under the sheets to get his pants.

"What are you doing?" I whined.

"My brothers will be here in an hour. I would suggest you not be present." I cursed in Greek and dropped to the mattress. Ishiah moved off to the shower. I waited until the water was running before I screamed into my pillow. I didn't make it out of the loft before the Cheris boys came though and much to my horror, their father had joined them.

This peri intimidated. Not like Hitler, Mussolini, or Napoleon all of whom were rather slight men manipulating masses through charm, politics, and falsified authority. No, Izrahiah had the girth to back it up. Taller than Ishiah by several inches and wider in the shoulders by a half a head, Izra was like the Goliath to little Cassie's David. Of course, we all knew how that one ended.

Like pucks, peris never died and never grew older than their prime. For some bodies that put a stopper on youth early, for others it aged them to distinguished, so they could forever hold that haughty look of snide self-entitlement over you. Izrahiah had ceased after the lines of constant frowning developed around a wide mouth, his eyes were sharp and deep-set like two blazing dark embers glowing in a face of hard lines.

He gazed down at me with disdain. "Leave, goat."

I smiled my best impression of civility. "Of course. I live to service." I gave him wink, shot a more meaningful look toward Ishiah and side-stepped out the door. I knew if I stayed I would only drive Ishiah to kick me out himself. I would never be able to hold my tongue in front of Izra, not if for one syllable he said something uncouth about his granddaughter. Denouncing her as he always did. If you listened to him you would think that Cassie had a butcher knife in hand as she came out of the womb. If only she'd been so lucky.

I ground my teeth in the quick cab ride home, but the irritation quickly rose to fright when I found Cassie's bed unoccupied while the television continued to drone through America's latest attempt at a contemporary talent competition. I darted down the hall to the main bath, empty, kitchen, empty. I halted in the threshold of my room and let out the breath I'd been holding. She was curled up on my bed –on top of the comforter– sleeping soundly in an almost fetal position. How anyone could use such a darling creature for mass genocide was beyond my comprehension, and my comprehension was vast.

I ran a hand through my hair and took in a few calming breaths. I joined her in the bed after turning off the lights and television, locking the doors, and shedding my pressed clothes for silk pants. I didn't normally like sleeping in anything other than what nature gave me, but I doubted my impressive genitalia would survive the night once Cassie noticed. She shifted when the mattress sagged, peering out of one eye then curling closer to my warmth. I folded the comforter over her, warm enough in my sheets alone. Cassie huddled into it as if it were winter in the Alps. She muttered something about being unable to turn off 'the box', then drifted back to sleep.

I kissed her forehead after brushing back her fountain of tawny hair. "Goodnight, Cas. I love you."


	8. Chapter 8 Cal

**CHAPTER EIGHT**

**CAL**

The feeling that you're being watch; it's not pleasant, but a little over-stimulated in my life. If it wasn't the Auphe, it was Niko, if it wasn't my brother, it was the bum on the corner of the street, or the revenant prowling down the alley, or the wolves attempting to circle me without being noticed on my way to work...again.

Didn't they know they tried this trick only a few months ago? I'd shot off one of their cronies' balls. Granted it wasn't entirely intentional, but it successfully got the Kin off my back for a few days. Then they attempted to kill me in Yellowstone while my friends and family were trying to stop Suloyak from turning the world into his petri dish of death germs. Only Delilah survived that attack and that was only because she'd been helping us take her own pack out.

Should have known they weren't done yet. I started noticing my shadow a few blocks from Niko and my apartment. Kept walking, hands in my pockets and back slouched. No reason for them to suspect I knew. The shadow kept distance and didn't engage, so I left it alone. I thought it had veered off at Eighth street, but apparently I was wrong.

I took in a long breath and let it out in a heavy sigh through my mouth. "Really? Another rumble?" I turned heel and focused on the closest dark shape behind a thick oak. "Am I that much of a threat? Because other than boning one of your own and killing one...two of your Alphas," I pressed my lips together. "Okay maybe you have a couple of reasons to want me dead."

My cocky smile deflated when the figure slipped out of the shadows, slinking toward me with every ounce of eroticism that attracted me to her to begin with. Pale white hair, flowed over her shoulders in waves, almond shaped eyes piercing across the distance between us. The only thing out of place was the firm line her mouth was in when it was usually a sultry quirk of the lips.

"Delilah." I hated that my voice sounded betrayed when I should have known. I turned my attention to the others bleeding out of the shade of the dark trees. There were eight of them; four of them in wolf form and three, like Delilah, in human or semi-human form. A new pack for her loyalty. I glared at her, trying it ignore that my body reacted still to the shift of her hips as she walked toward me. "So I'm guessing you never found another means."

"Ride has been fun, but it's over now."

I flicked the snap off my gun holster and pulled it from under my arm. Safety off, safety always off. "Can't say I'm surprised it came to this. Though, I honestly thought you feral mutts would realize what a bad idea killing me would be." I offered the hydrant-pisser loping around behind me a grin. "Because even if you kill me and chow down on my entrails, you'll still have to deal with Niko. And trust me, you don't want to deal with a vengeance-ridden, ninja assassin like my brother."

"Dishonor Kin, you die," one of the humanoid bastards informed me. He suffered from that disturbing inbreeding of pure bloods. His jaw excessively protruding out from under his top teeth, his nose was sharply extending from his face, and course hair covered the length of his cheekbones and chin, giving a new meaning to mutton chops. His amber eyes fixed on me, a black wolf the size of a Great Dane trotting at his side. "Simple enough for dumb half sheep."

My finger itched on the trigger of my Glock, wishing I had my Desert Eagle, and I aimed it at the beauty queen's Neanderthal forehead. Eight was a bit much for me; I might be able to take a few down with me, but my other option of traveling away from here was gone and Delilah knew that. She knew that and she had them come to me when I was alone. Just me and my gun.

"Yeah, I get it," I assured him. "So are we doing this?"

The Alpha looked over at Delilah and the gorgeous werewolf lifted her chin even as she retreated a step. The submission was odd to see in her and she picked a damned fine time to start following orders. The wolves on all fours crept toward me, low to the ground, rows of yellowed teeth bared and ears pressed forward. I kept my gun aimed on the Alpha and reached for my serrated knife with the other hand. Might as well go out fighting. I doubted if I took off I could outrun them. I'd seen how fast a werewolf could run when he had the inclination.

I took the first shot, which the Alpha dodged, then the second following his movement. He went down with that one, maybe not dead, but I had four wolves bearing down on me and only thirteen bullets left. I should have asked Niko for the twenty five magazine for my birthday. I leveled it with the closest slobbering wolf and let another three shots off. The black furball somersaulted with a yelp and I backed up. Aiming at the next too late.

Razor sharp fangs dug into my ankle, my fucking ankle. It effectively tripped me onto my back, but I didn't lose my gun. I lowered it without hesitation; head shot and my furry ankle bracelet stilled on the grass. Just as another snapped onto my shoulder, dragging me back with a shake of its head. He let off a cry myself, when I felt those teeth saw through tendons. I rammed the bowie knife over my shoulder, catching the bastard in the eye as it slashing along his thick skull.

"Fuck," I screamed as another pounced on top of me, long claws digging into my chest and kibble-breath heating my throat. I whipped the knife back, the wolf dodged. I shoved the muzzle of the gun against its temple and let off another shot. This fleabag didn't even make a sound, other than a meaty thud when it hit the ground. I flipped over onto my knees and attempted to get up. My ankle complained, but held me and I scrambled to spin with the Glock pointed out. I stared out at the clearing, but there was no movement. Other than the Alpha moaning and still trying to collect himself off the ground and two dead mutts with bullets to their heads, there were two other bodies sprawled out one with his head crudely sawed off and another split from sternum to groin and another stab wound to the temple for good measure.

"Well, that can't be good." I wavered, stepped back and searched the shadows for something far worse than a few flea bags.

A sound crossed between pain and fury echoed at my left and I spun, gun level where the standard man's head would be. I lowered it immediately when all it caught down the length of the barrel was empty air between two massive wings. My eyes flickered over the situation with my heart beating madly in my chest. "Cassie..."

Her wings shifted on her back, gold eyes meeting mine. Her foot was braced to the neck of a sleek white wolf as she crouched over it, a simple dagger planted to the hilt between the wolf's ribs. I knew Delilah when I saw her, even in wolf form, and despite what she did, despite the hell she brought me, I didn't really want to see her sliced up by my current crush. Delilah was far from dead –wolves could handle a bit more than a few bullets or stab wounds unless they were in the head or heart. She whined and wiggled under Cassie's foot, scratching her back paws against the peri's thigh.

"Cassie, don't."

Her sooty colored wings flexed and she obediently stepped back from Delilah, even plucked out the blade. Delilah raked across the ground to get to her feet and fishtailed around to face Cassie, snarling. I lowered my Glock, but took a few precautionary steps toward the two females. Behind Cassie the last remaining werewolves circled closer, one shaking off the last bits of clothing from its sinewy body.

"Private party?" Cassie asked. Her voice was husky with anger and, damn, did I find it sexy.

"You're invitation just got lost in the mail," I told her and pulled the gun back up. "Delilah, now might be a good time to retreat. Cut your losses and all that."

Delilah growled in reply, obviously disagreeing. Of course, Kin never backed down, no matter the odds against them. Cassie flipped the dagger one handed and glanced over her shoulder at the other adversaries. We could handle three, even with eight shots left in the Glock. I had a blade-toting peri on my side now and that comforted in a way it never should an Auphe.

The werewolves attacked a second later. Delilah and the burly grey wolf going for Cassie while the one dropping the rest of his pants mid leap charged for me. Three shots, all missed. This wolf was like a fucking pinball. The recoil was aggravating the tear in my arm. I switched hands, dropping the bowie knife at my feet and aimed again. My left hand wasn't as accurate and another two bullets sailed passed his furry hide as deep grazes, but the solid kick to his chest when he tried to tackle me was dead on. The wolf back flipped, steadied and vaulted at me again. Close range now, I brought up the gun with both hands and emptied the magazine into his wide open jowls. It didn't stop his full, now dead, weight from plowing me to the ground. Some of the air pushed out of my lungs and I gasped to retrieve it.

Shoving the bloody mass of fur and wet dog stink off my body, I hoisted myself back onto my feet just in time to duck the sharp and pointy dagger as it spun over my head. It lodged into a tree trunk behind me with a twang. Cassie was unarmed now, but by the breathtaking dance she was partaking in with the wolves she didn't need it. I gaped at the grace, feeling for a moment I was watching Nik fight, until she was upside down and scissoring her legs around the gray wolf's neck. Effectively body slamming him into the ground. Her fist met his jaw three times before I heard the crack of his elongated jaw and then Delilah was on her back, snapping at her nape.

"Shit," I hissed out and shoved my spare magazine home. I aimed at Delilah and shot her in the shoulder. She yelped, rolled away and laid the bitchiest wolf-glare I'd ever seen upon me. Cassie was on her feet again, along with the gray wolf, then off them as she flipped over him in an aerial, crouched, and spun a kick that took out all four legs from under the prick. It was all one fluid motion to my eyes and I almost missed the open shot she gave me, gawking.

"Cal!" I pulled the trigger, sending the last nameless wolf spiraling into the closet tree trunk dead. Delilah bared her teeth, furious, and made a bee line right for me. Apparently, our tentative truce was now over. I shot at her again, catching her in the hindquarters, but she kept coming.

She reared up, front paws slamming against my chest and knocking me back to the ground again. I knocked the barrel of the Glock against her head, repeating it and dodging her snapping jowls until her body sagged against me. My head dropped back to the ground, breath as rampant as relief in my chest.

"You alive?" Cassie asked. She shoved the white wolf off me with a heel and smiled down at me as I lay panting and sweating in the cool summer night. "I can see why Niko makes you run all the time. No stamina."

I glared, but took her offered hand as she hauled me onto my feet. "How'd you find me?"

"I wasn't stalking you this time, promise." She pulled the jacket away from my neck where it was wounded and cringed. "I was taking a walk and heard gun shots. You should really use a silencer out here." I lifted the Glock to show her there was a silencer attached. She wrinkled her nose and gave a shrug. "A better silencer then."

"Noted," I offered and rolled my shoulder. "Ah." Which was a horrible idea.

"We need to get that cleaned up. Anywhere close we could go?" I nodded. The apartment was a few miles from here, but we had medical supplies for our many mishaps and Niko was out with Promise so I wouldn't have to explain. Yet. He would know something happened the moment he came home, even if I'd been unscathed.

Alpha boy growled low from his half fetal position and attempted to get on his feet. "Kill you, Auphe. I will kill you." I raised my brow, then my gun. One more muffled bang wouldn't make a difference; the Vigil would be cleaning up this mess anyway.

We took a taxi back to the apartment with Cassie's cash that Robin had lent her. Something told me he wouldn't be getting it back anytime soon. I turned on the living room light and limped over to the couch, unceremoniously flopping down in exhaustion. "Med kit?" Cassie asked. "With your fighting style you have to have one."

I didn't have the energy to come up with a witty response so I just told her it was under the bathroom sink. I watched her as she walked down the hall and noticed with dread she was covered in blood and not all of it was wolf. Her neck was torn up from what I could tell; her hair covered most of it with a matted mass of stained honey brown. Delilah had gotten her. Her shirt was ripped down the length of her blade arm with deep gashed following to the crook of her elbow.

I forced myself to sit up and waited for her to return. Eyeing her as she perched on the coffee table facing me. "Jacket off."

"Shirt off," I countered. She smirked as if it were a come on. "Delilah got you pretty good. I've clotted, you're still bleeding." I took her wrist that was holding an antiseptic wipe and turned it soft side up to see the wounds better. The remains of her shirt hid it, but I could catch a glimpse of her flesh rippling apart. "You'll need stitches."

"I'll heal," she assured me and twisted her wrist out of my hold. I let her, gingerly stripping off my jacket and tee shirt with her supervision. I'd focus on her wounds when she was satisfied I was all right. The alcohol burned, as alcohol does, when she dabbed it to my neck. Her blowing softly to dry it just sent shivers up my spine. "So that was Delilah?"

Cassie said it while her eyes were fixed on my wound, but I could see the tense raise in her eyebrows and the twitch at the side of her jaw. I almost laughed. "Are you jealous?" Cassie pulled back, pouty lips parting to deny what was undeniable. "You're jealous." I did laugh then. "You're jealous of my ex-girlfriend that just tried to tear my throat out."

"I warned you they bite."

I grinned. "Yes, you did."

She went back to dressing the wound, speaking between blowing cool air over the inflamed skin. "So what did you do to piss of the Kin?"

I snorted. "I slept with Delilah, killed her pack, killed a couple of the most powerful Alphas among them. It's a laundry list really, but I'm pretty sure they just don't like me." I stretched my neck so she could tape gauze over it. I probably needed stitches too, but my hand was certainly not careful enough to administer such precise attention. When I fought those 'most powerful Alphas' I nearly escaped with a nub as an arm. Stitches weren't fun without a local anesthetic and Niko and I still hadn't managed to replenish what we lost in the car bomb on our road trip.

"Let me see your leg," she ordered.

"Let me see your arm." I determined to stand firm this time. My ankle managed to get me home without much more than an unsteady limp, I knew it wouldn't be any worse for another few minutes. Cassie seemed to sense that too.

"You just want me to take off my shirt."

"Would you rather I do it?" I was flirting, so sue me. I had this surprisingly sexy, girl-next-door, dagger-wielding, bad ass sitting before me and I had a legitimate reason to see her half-naked. I wasn't about to pass that up. Cassie sighed and shucked her long sleeved shirt without any more complaint, though she did scowl at me for staring. I couldn't help it; those 34Bs looked stunning in the lime green bra with its little pink bow placed in the center.

"Don't laugh, Robin made me buy it."

"Thank you, Robin." Finally Cassie cracked a smile and laughed when I asked, "Matching underwear?"

"It's Robin Goodfellow, what do you think?"

"Well, seeing is believing—" She tossed a gauze roll at me and reached for her shirt. I stopped her. "Wait. Don't. Let me see your arm." She offered it to me with a flinch as she straightened it. It looked better than what I'd originally thought, but still needed more than a few butterfly bandages. "I'm no good with stitches, Cassie, so I can't do much."

"It'll heal," she told me again. I cleaned it and did the best I could pulling the sides of the wound together with the butterflies. By the time I was wrapping the gauze around it, it had clotted. She turned around on the table without question once I was done and pulled her hair off her neck. It was a lot shorter, I noticed, layers tossed about in a wind-blown look to her shoulder blades.

"I like the haircut," I murmured as I cleaned the abrasions and cuts along her long nape and thin shoulders. She still had that woody floral scent that drove me crazy, if anything it was heightened after the fight. "Robin's idea?"

"The style, yes. I just wanted to get rid of it. Do you have any idea how much conditioner I went through in a week?" I smirked and dabbed some antibiotic cream over her skin. She gasped and shuddered a little at the cold. I watched goosebumps rise on her pale flesh and felt something twitch below. Closing my eyes, I tried to get a grip on my hormones. My body apparently, thought differently though.

My hands slid down the length of her spine watching it curve at my touch. They glided around her waist, over the ripple of her jeans, to rest on her inner thighs. I felt Cassie gasp again, when my chest brushed her back, my lips finding a thin grazing wound and kissing it. "Cal," she whispered. "I need to talk to you about something."

"It can wait," I argued and pressed my fingers into her thighs. I kissed her pulse, not sure what animal was taking me over, but not really caring. She smelled so good and I was going to ignore the fact that the scent of blood was probably getting my Auphe half off a bit. Her unwounded arm snaked around to grab at my disheveled hair, scratching my scalp and leaning back into me.

"I should…," she attempted again even as her mouth found mine over her shoulder. "I..." she trailed off when I claimed her full lips, biting at the lower one with relish. "Oh, fuck it." She hissed out and was straddling me on the couch in the next moment. The wounds stung, but were ignored when other sensations grew. Her body was so warm and supple in all the right places. And I got to see those matching lime green panties, before I promptly tore them off.

Ham had been right; sex with a peri was god damned breathtaking.

Waking up after sex with a peri was god damned painful, though I think that had something to do with picking a fight with the Kin beforehand more than the actual mind numbing sex. Niko slapping me awake certainly didn't help either. "What the hell happened last night?"

I groaned and tried to bury my face in my pillow. Cassie and I had moved to the bed eventually. We hadn't bothered to clean up the living room though, so I'm sure seeing all the first aid stuff laid out, blood staining the carpet and couch, and a scattering of molted feathers, Niko probably freaked. Oh right, I never called work either; I hoped Ish didn't call my brother about that. "Nik, I'm fine. Just a little Kin problem, nothing to—Ow!"

Niko's precision had him slam a light punch to my shoulder. A move like that would hurt regardless, but with the raw skin there I rolled over with tears forming in my eyes. Cassie had stitched me up like a pro when our activities made my wounds open, but it still hurt like a bitch. "Owww!" I decided to emphasize that; Nik didn't look apologetic. "Stop it. You're supposed to be loose and not such a pain in the ass after sleeping over at Promise's. Did she have a headache or something?" Another whap to the side of my head, but I kinda deserved that one.

"Who was here?" Nik demanded. "Delilah? Did you seriously bring Delilah back here after her pack attacked you again? Are you that depraved—"

"No," I snapped. I pulled my aching body into a sitting position and glanced at the empty sheets beside me. They still smelled like her, so I hadn't noticed she'd slipped out sometime in the early morning. Well, I guess it was still early morning. The sky outside was just lightening; maybe Ish did call Nik. That would explain why he was here so early and not in that post sex haze. Too bad it was a good place to be. I smirked as I picked up a feather caught in the sheets and twisted it in my fingers. I noticed that along with the wispy black veins there was a dart of red highlighting the stem. "It was Cassie." I paused and picked up a piece of paper half hidden by the other pillow. "She pretty much saved my ass last night and I brought her here to clean up."

"Cassie?" Niko repeated, as if weighing the name on his tongue. I rubbed my blurred eyes and tried to make sense of the note she'd obviously left me. Her handwriting was worse than mine, which was saying a lot, but I could read it. It just didn't make sense.

"Where have I heard this before?" I asked Nik and handed him the note. Promise was in the doorway of my room. Surprising, she didn't normally come out in the day time being a vampire sensitive to UVs and all that. Of course, it was still dark enough out and overcast, so she could wander about under an umbrella. Yeah, my shenanigans probably interrupted them.

"'This thing of darkness, I acknowledge mine,'" Niko read, then pursed his lips. He handed the note back to me with a sour look. "She left that for you?"

"She signed it," I offered. I tapped the feather to my lips. I understood why Robin had kept Ishiah's feather with him during our road trip; it smelled like Cassie and even reminded me of her kiss. I shook my head to focus. "Where have I heard it?" Niko was a walking Wikipedia; if it was historical, evil, or just boring he would know about it.

"The Tempest," Niko replied, still perturbed and edging up to pissed. "She's mocking you, Cal. That line, Prospero says that about Caliban. Begrudgingly admitting the monster is his responsibility. She's…don't see her again."

I stared at the note; well, that didn't make sense. She was so responsive with me. She begged for more and whined every time we stopped kissing. And, unlike Delilah, she liked to cuddle. Was I her walk of shame? A peri sleeping with an Auphe…it wasn't the most honorable thing, but—

"Niko," Promise interjected before my brother could hammer the last nail into the coffin of an amazing night meeting reality. "I don't think that's what she meant." Niko turned to acknowledge her and I gave her a hopeful look. Promise was a woman for centuries and knew all the crazy shit that went on in their heads. I pleaded for her to make sense of this. "May I come in?"

I gave her a dubious look; one of the many things cinemas got wrong about vampires. Garlic didn't do squat other than gave them bad breath like the rest of us. Sunlight didn't incinerate on contact, just gave a nasty burn that could go third degree if in direct light. They didn't sleep in coffins unless they were mentally deranged. They didn't always wear leather and black, though Promise did on occasion and looked amazing. And they didn't need to be invited in. "It's your bedroom, Caliban, I feel it polite to—"

"Come in," I told her. "And tell me what you think she meant by this Dear John?"

Promise smiled, a wistful thing that lured in so many a rich man. "It isn't a Dear John or a mockery. The fact that she decided to use that line, without any of the other content of that scene, makes me believe she meant it lovingly." Promise stopped at my bedside, cupping my chin in a delicate soft hand and ignoring the fact that the sheets were the only thing covering me. "'This thing of darkness, I acknowledge mine.'"

When Promise said it, she met my eyes with the smile still there and affection heavy in her tone. I imagined Cassie saying it that way and I suddenly wanted to dive into the sheets to wrap myself in her scent. "She's claiming me."

"I think you may have yourself a girlfriend, Cal," Promise said with a touch of teasing. Her fingers drifted over my stubbly chin before she retreated to Niko's side and touched his shoulder. "Niko, she already knew what Caliban was. Probably heard dozens of stories from that hot-headed, endlessly prattling puck. She defended him against the Kin and dressed his wounds. I do not think she did all this for a childish prank."

Niko stared me down for a long moment, probably trying to figure out what was going on in my head. If he came up with anything, I just hoped he'd share. "Clean up the living room. Then we're going to see Professor Nushi." He stalked out of my room and Promise followed with a sigh and a consoling smile over her shoulder to me.

I wasn't about to complain. Going to see our consolation healer at the local college campus meant that the aches would go away and I wouldn't have as many nasty scars. I scanned the note again, hoping for some contact information, but there was none. Ah, well. Robin knew where Nushi was; if he felt it necessary he'd take Cassie there himself. Maybe I'd see her then. Ask her myself what the hell she meant by this.

"'This thing of darkness, I acknowledge mine.'" I tried out the words myself, but it didn't help. I did however wonder what the hell she wanted to tell me. We never really got around to it...

"Cal!" Niko snapped, his voice echoing through the apartment. I groaned and leaned over the bed to look for my pants.


	9. Chapter 9 Cal

**CHAPTER NINE**

**CAL**

The following night I went to work –my overprotective brother finally let me out of the apartment then. I even only arrived at the Ninth Circle three minutes late in apology. Niko followed after me, scanning and surveying the entire walk. We avoided the park, taking the long way around and the moment we walked into the Ninth, Niko went over to his usual table and started pulling out texts from his bags.

He was the first person I'd ever seen study in a bar; a coffee shop or diner, sure, but a bar? The patrons ignored him, though the regulars eyed me in some sort of surprise. As if they had been placing bets on me not coming in today. Even Samyael shot me a baffled look when I ducked under the bar latch. "You're alive."

I straightened my jacket. "Yeah…"

"That wolf pack that frequents was boasting your death a few days ago. Said they had figured out your weakness and were going to rid the world of the half Auphe. Knowing you, I doubted it, but you were a no-show that night and the next. Thought you kicked it." I scowled at Sammy, who seemed hardly broken up about it, and glanced over at the table that had usually been reserved for the pack of Kin that always came in to spite the half Auphe. I never gave a shit, but if it made them feel vindicated coming into a peri bar whatever.

The table wasn't empty, but two unfamiliar succubae were chatting over mojitos in their place.

"Huh," I almost laughed. "I thought they looked kind of familiar."

"Stop killing our regulars," Samyael warned me and tossed a bar rag in my direction.

"Hey, the vodyanoi was not intentional and that little bit of salt never killed the slug," I argued. Samyael ignored me, moving off down the bar to tend to the customers. I caught Niko's eye as I moved up to the edge of the bar were the closest humanoid monster was flagging me down. "What'll it be?" A tired and true line, but pretty much every bar line was over used in today's cinema.

The vampire –I caught a flicker of fangs when she made her order– asked for three light beers and I replied with the total before even leaving the bar. Niko's gray eyes were locked on mine and I motioned with my head to the succubae's table. I didn't have to imply anything more; he'd heard from me about the disgruntled mutts and saw them himself a few times. He'd know they were the wolves that attacked me and hopefully that would ease his mind a little. At least I wouldn't be harassed at work anymore.

I brought the vampire her beers and took her cash for the register. I even gave her a friendly nod when she gave me a five for a tip. Only vampires tipped well. Vodyanoi were the worse, if they tipped at all.

Niko watched the bar like a Russian spy checking out the White House; every creature was a threat tonight, even if most of them didn't associate with the Kin. That didn't matter to Nik. One death threat meant there were dozens unspoken, but just as potential. When Promise's daughter went psychotic on us and conjured the image of me bloodied and in pieces on our living room rug, Niko had gone off the deep end of the deepest fucking ocean. He slaughtered three ccoas, ten cadejos and one ugly-ass monster spider just to get to the bastard that we _thought _was pulling the strings. Afterward (after hacking off Cherish's head for her prank, of course) Niko barely let me take a piss on my own. He was there every morning, or afternoon, I woke. He came to work with me every night, and gave me the most vicious glare when I said I wanted to go see Delilah. I had to tape a picture of me jumping on Santa's balls at age four to his bedpost with a note telling him I was alive and suggesting he should make me breakfast, just to get him through those first few moments of the day. Awesome too, because I got a few breakfasts out of that deal.

As much as his life would probably be exponentially better without me causing trouble, it scared him to the point of insanity. I was pretty sure if I ever lost him –and the only way that would happen was if I aged slower due to my Auphe genes while he would die of old age—I would be catatonic. Eh, no, psychotic was more apt an outcome.

The night was like any other at the Ninth Circle though. Ishiah even showed up to bark orders to Samyael and me; Efferih was still there, but I only saw him when he poked his head out of the back to make sure I hadn't made anything or anyone explode. I saw no signs of Ishiah's brothers, except for maybe the tall, broad peri sitting in the back corner of the bar near Nik. This guy was impressive. Shoulder span the size of a wall partition, eyebrows as black as night and hair a shock of white gold. His face was made up of sharp lines with a long, straight nose, jutting chin and a four finger brow. I could see his hands were sword calloused even from ten feet away and when he spoke to Ishiah, my boss refused his eyes in respect. I didn't know Ishiah had it in him.

"Head up, Auphe," Efferih snapped from behind me. I spun around with my hand already on my Desert Eagle; yeah, I wasn't taking chances this time. Exploding rounds for the kill. Efferih slid amber-brown eyes to my concealed hand, then back up to my face as if daring me to continue with the movement. Oh, would I have loved too. The world wouldn't miss one asshole peri, right? That pesky thing Niko liked to call my conscience got in the way though and I dropped my hand, wishing looks could kill instead. "Do your job."

He said nothing more to me and briskly walked over to the big peri's table while Ishiah was still there. Nik was close enough that he could probably overhear their conversation and even if it was in the peris' language, I was confident that my brother could translate the gist. Or at least find out if that was Ishiah's dad or the peris godfather or something. I served a few more drinks while keeping an eye on their terse conversation and my brother as well. Splitting up my concentration like that had me forget my own emanate danger until she was sitting in front of me on a bar stool with a smirk and a yellowing bruise across her jaw.

"Ah, hey," I greeted. To be honest, I hadn't expected to see her anytime in the near future. At least, not in human form and not without her wolf teeth bearing down on my neck. "What are you doing here?"

"Drink," Delilah replied and slapped a twenty to the counter. "You and I talk."

"I gave you that option several times. I think we're passed that, 'Lilah." She hated the nickname, but I found it amusing to use when I was particularly pissed off at her. Or when I was trying to threaten her. It rarely produced more than a quirk in her sharp eyebrows.

"You sleep with mangy bird now?"

I snorted. "That would be none of your business. We discussed before that we could sleep with anyone we wanted. Or have you fallen so deeply in love with the half Auphe that you can't contain your jealousy?" I pulled back before she could slap me. I'd experienced one of her non-four-play slaps when I told her I need some time away about a year ago before the Auphe were nuked to hell. They hurt like a bitch. "What do you want to drink?"

"Bourbon, straight, double." I took her twenty, deciding the change would be my tip for not shooting her on the spot. "You think wolf dangerous, but peri far worse for you."

"Why do you say that?" I poured her drink and slid it front of her. A revenant slogged up to the bar two stools down and tried to flag me over. I shot him a scathing glare and he quickly moved on to Sammy. After slaughtering a nest out in bumblefuck with Robin and his psycho mummy cat, word traveled to other skin-slopping, gag-worthy bastards like him not to mess with the Auphe in town. I was much obliged. Revenants weren't good for anything, being pretty much the equivalent of a Romero zombie. Bees stung you, but at least the made honey; revenants just made an unexplainable body count and smelled like a sewer.

"What do you think is enemy to virtue?" I turned my attention back to Delilah. "Virtue hates sin. Auphe are sin. You sure she wants you and not blood in water?"

I rolled my eyes. "Delilah, what do you want?"

"Now?" Her tone deepened to a soft growl. "Same thing peris do. Death of Auphe."

"Well, our honeymoon didn't last long, did it?" I countered.

"You should have killed me if you did not want to die."

"Kill or be killed," I sighed and decided to give Samyael a break and slid a beer over to the revenant, who still hadn't been served. "Well, I'll keep that in mind next time. Nice talking to you."

"Cal!" Delilah snapped before I could push away from the bar. "You dishonored me three times. Do not blame me for a grave you dug."

"Get out of my bar," I hissed. Granted it wasn't by any stretch of the imagination mine, but even Ishiah would be lenient if I shot Delilah point blank. As long as I cleaned up the mess afterward.

Delilah tilted her head and smirked as if I'd said something funny. I didn't really think she'd leave when I asked. Delilah didn't do anything that Delilah didn't want to do. She picked up her glass instead and took a small sip, purposefully drawing attention to her mouth.

As beautiful as Delilah was all I could think about was Cassie's full lips. It made me smile. "Not gonna work, 'Lilah." I rapped against the bar and gave her a wink. "Enjoy your drink."

Delilah didn't appreciate my candor or the fact that I walked away from her. Niko seemed to appreciate it though; he didn't even have to get up from his studies. Delilah finished her Bourbon then left, making sure I knew it had nothing to do with me wanting her gone. I wasn't an optimistic person, by nature or experience. Delilah was probably the closest thing I'd ever get to a relationship and Cassie was probably going to be known to me as the best one night stand of my life.

Because Delilah was right. Ishiah might tolerate me because Robin held some strange feeling akin to affection for me, but any other peris hated me. I was lulled into thinking I was just another cockroach on the earth to them because of Danyel, Samyael, and the others that worked at the Ninth Circle, but now that the clan brothers had arrived I noticed that the sentiment was a bit more feral. Robin said the peris loathed the Auphe; with the way the peri godfather and Efferih looked at me, I was apt to agree. Which meant Cassie probably did mean for that note to be a confession to a mistake.

"Go home." I jumped at the low voice coming up to my side. Ishiah was at my elbow. He had a scowl on his face and for once I could tell it wasn't because of me.

"What? Ish, I just got here. We don't close for another five hours and I haven't even pissed off any customers!"

"Go home," Ishiah repeated, leaning closer. I glanced over at the table where the big Lebowski sat. Mr. Broad Shoulders had his eyes fixed on me, glaring.

"Is this a racist thing?" Ishiah didn't say anything, but puffed out his chest and pressed his lips together. I sighed. "Fine. I better be getting paid for this." My boss lifted his dark blond eyebrows, then pushed me toward the bar latch. I shrugged him off and lifted the door to get on the other side. Nik looked up at me in question when I walked up to his table.

"All right, I've served some drinks, effectively destroyed my sex life, and ticked off the tourists," I shot a pointed look at the peri in the booth next to Niko's table at the last emphasized word. "We can go now."

Nik didn't ask. He collected his books as I had a mini stare-off with the dark-browed prick. Usually, I won these things, since no one wanted to look an Auphe in the eye, even one that looked human. This guy certainly wasn't backing down and Niko had to drag me away with a tug on my arm.

Once we were outside, Niko gave me the tell-all look. "Nothing happened." I assured him, meaning there were no shots fired, but he knew that already. "You can say I told you so if you like, I know you're dying to."

Niko stopped on the sidewalk and my hand immediately went to my gun. He was looking at me though, not some shadow lurking in an alley ready to feast on my innards. Okay, maybe I was being a little jumpy too tonight. "You think I wanted this to happen?"

"No, but you never liked Delilah."

"I never trusted Delilah, that doesn't mean I didn't hold out hope." I dropped my hand from the barrel and stuffed it in my pocket where the other already was on the other side. Every now and then I entertained that idea. That my relationship with Delilah could have been more than just convenience sex. Reality was a true thing though, and I never kidded myself for very long. Apparently, Nik had been doing the same. Imagine that. One big happy family, two brothers and their otherworldly girlfriends…well, actually I was the only one _other_worldly, but it had a better ring to it than non-human.

"I'm more interested in the Godfeather over by your end of the bar." Niko frowned at my change of subject, but at least he started walking again.

"Izrahiah," Nik told me, giving the peri a name. "From what I could tell he's the leader of the Cheris clan, which would make him—"

"Ish's dad," I supplied. Niko nodded, not giving me any props for my own sleuthing capabilities, which were really just power of deduction, trial, and error.

"They were speaking perian." Ah, so there was a name for that too. "So I didn't make out much. I gather he's here for the same reason the other brothers are."

"Cassie." Damn it, even saying her name depressed me. I paused on our walk home this time, waiting for Niko to turn around to face me. "You think she played me? Robin says peris hate the Auphe and Delilah emphasized it. You think she would be like Delilah? Kill me to get points with granddaddy?"

"Then why would she save you?" Niko asked. I raised my eyebrows in question. Yesterday morning he'd been declaring her a patronizing danger, now she was my savior? He sighed and dragged his fingers through the dark blond hair at his temple, smoothing flyaway into his long braid. "There was also gossip about the Kin attack, or failed attempt as it were. Four wolves had bullets in them, three were torn up or decapitated by blade. Delilah was the only one to survive and the Kin merely attributed that to you wishing to torture her before you kill her later. She told them she would avenge her packs' death."

A very Auphe tactic, me wanting to play with my food, but not my intention. I couldn't kill her then, but if she tried again all bets were off. "What's your point?"

"Would you have been able to kill them all on your own?" I didn't reply. Who wants to tell their over protective brother that without him, they'd die? I'd never be able to shower without him sitting outside the door waiting like a creepy guard dog. Niko caught my answer in that silence and ducked his head to the side in a moment of unspoken, unseen fear. "Cassie could have left them to it. Or she could have killed you after you knocked out Delilah. She could have even killed you at the apartment while you were distracted by other things. The point is not only did she not attempt to harm you and listened to you when you stopped her from killing Delilah, she slept with you. That will hardly 'get her points' with her grandfather."

Niko started walking again, but didn't stop talking. I let him. Usually he didn't hash out his thoughts in the open like this and I had to admit I liked where they were going. I mean, it was an insult to half Auphe me, but Nik was implying Cassie _wanted _to have sex with me. And I doubted the chatter at the bar referenced me sparing Delilah out of deranged compassion or Cassie being on the edge of killing her. Delilah would take that to her grave if she wanted to survive in the Kin longer than a day. Niko just knew. He knew I couldn't kill her yet and I'm sure he knew why, even if I didn't. "It could be a more complex plan to gain your trust then tear you down, but I doubt that. Ishiah has most likely revealed at least some of our situation and therefore I doubt they would want to linger in our household."

"Because you would murder the shit out of them?"

"Because you have friends that wouldn't think twice about backing you up or avenging your death." I nodded; because Niko would murder the shit out of them.

"What are you thinking then?"

"I think she's Robin's best friend," Niko answered, matter of fact. It was odd out of context, but I knew he meant that we trusted Robin, so we trusted his judgment. "Granted she has been away for a while and could have changed. I don't like that she hasn't confided any information to you. She's hiding. From them as much as her own secrets."

"Them being the peri brothers Grimm?" Niko nodded. "You know what this means, right?"

For once, my brother looked baffled, but it didn't last long when he read my intentions in my smile. "I should go talk to her. Maybe if I ask for the truth, gasp, she'll give it to me."

Niko caught me by the back of my jacket and tugged me in line with him before I could head toward the station that would take me to Robin's place. "We ask Robin. Tomorrow. He may embellish, but he won't lie. Not to us." I pouted and Niko smacked the back of my head. "Don't let her distract you."

"Delilah or Cassie?"

Niko glared. "Both."


	10. Chapter 10 Cal

**CHAPTER TEN**

**CAL**

Robin Goodfellow was probably the most long winded creature known to all of man and monster kind. I once spent an entire shift at the Ninth with him ranting about the continuity of the label on his whiskey. Of course I was actually watching the television over his shoulder, but he could talk. So much that I wondered how he had his voice by the end of the night. And he couldn't just talk, he could talk with great emotion. He could make me feel awkward just talking about the power of love, mostly because sexual details would often get tossed into the lecture. You could feel his irritation when he was ticked off and you could see his amusement when he was happy. When you live with the ass-kicking version of Buddah your whole life you don't see emotions revealed so honestly often.

I'd learned to read Niko, but he wasn't forthcoming with his feelings. And hell, the only emotions you could read on my face were pissed, bitchy, and enraged. Robin was a whole new kind of creature to us; literally since he was the first puck we'd met. But of all the emotions I'd seen clearly on his self-proclaimed godly face, I had never had such a violent urge to start pointing and laughing hysterically at him as I did the moment we walked into his office at the dealership.

Robin Goodfellow was hungover.

For one, I didn't think it were possible. Loman could drink Sasquatch under the table and still have the ability to play beer pong with...well, some historical guy he probably knew by a nickname that was a heavy drinker. I don't think I'd ever seen Robin hungover. Drunk through the night, yes, drunk the next morning, yes, but never hungover. He always said his metabolism kicked it out of his system before it caused adverse effects.

But there he was, hunched over his work desk with his eyes closed and one hand braced against the bridge of his nose. There was a tall glass of water, a spilled bottle of aspirin, and what looked to be a Venti cup of coffee from Starbucks. I glanced over at Niko, who looked slightly surprised as well, then we both walked into the office.

The sales area was alive with activity, probably because it was Saturday. The overhead speakers were requesting assistance in the lot, on the showroom floor, and Robin just sat at his desk lamenting poor decisions of the night before. I could help myself. I slammed my palms against the desk and shouted his name. What can I say, I am half evil. Niko smacked me on the back of the head for that, but it was worth it when Goodfellow jumped out of his skin and focus a painful dead glare on me.

"Dick," it was all he said and it only made me want to laugh at him again.

"What were you doing last night? I've never seen you this hungover before."

"You've never seen me hungover, at all," Robin replied, articulating his words a bit more than he usually did, probably to sound more coherent than he was. "I don't get hungover." I smiled and tilted my head, just waiting for him to stop there so I could clap my hands at the ready in front of his face. He clasped them and pushed them down. "I don't usually get hungover."

"Ish drink you under the table?"

"Cassie, and no she didn't. Considering she has been at the apartment regurgitating the little contents in her stomach for the last four hours, I believe that means I drank her under the table." I cringed, feeling a little sympathy for the poor girl. I'd never been there myself, since our drunken mother kept Niko and I off the hair of the dog religiously, but I'd seen it in others and my fair share of regulars at the various bars I worked in.

Robin ran a hand over his face to ease the tension of his, no doubt, epic headache. "So what can I do for the Leandros brothers? Don't tell me there's a job. I can't handle a job right now."

Niko silently pulled out one of the plush chairs on the other side of Robin's desk and sat down. A little out of character for my brother, but at the same time few monsters would attack us in broad daylight in the middle of an open car dealership. The Auphe might have, but they were taken out by the big bang theory in the form of a nuke suitcase. "We have some questions for you."

"Questions," Robin repeated, took a swig of coffee, then popped two more painkillers. "Is it time for that talk? Well, you see when a woman and a man, or a man and a man, or a woman and another woman—"

"Not those kinds of questions," I cut in, before he actually did go off on a sex ed rant. I'd already learned too much of what I knew from Goodfellow. He even drew a diagram once, and let me say, sketching is not one of his weak points when it came to realism. "It's about Cassie."

It wasn't often that Robin got ruffled. More often than Nik, of course, but still a momentous occasion. He straightened in his leather chair, glancing between the two of us and frowning. "Then it depends solely on what you're asking. I might not be able to confirm or deny suspicions. For her protection and yours."

I rolled my eyes. "Why is everything about her cryptic? If she's done all the dark and bad things everyone's claiming, she's the most bubbly murderer I've ever met."

"Caliban," Goodfellow hissed, leaning forward on his desk to admonish me. He pressed his hand down on the air in a gesture of quiet. "For the sake of my pounding head and for the sake of those innocent workers who love to hear gossip, please keep your ungodly foul mouth shut or at least lower it a few decibels."

Instead I opened my ungodly foul mouth to prove his insult. Niko swung at my head and narrowly missed, but he'd stopped me from disrupting the mundane work day, which was the intention. Robin continued to lean against his desk, pinching the bridge of his nose again. "I'm not going to try and dissuade you from judging her like that. She did annihilate several formidable peri clans before she came to her senses, but the point is that she came to her senses. She isn't a murderer. No more than you and Niko are. She killed to survive."

"I wasn't judging her," I countered. I was the last monster to judge.

Robin stared at me for a moment. "What happened that night? She wouldn't give me details."

I wrinkled my nose. "Like I will? We had sex, it was nice, and she left while I was sleeping. If that doesn't give you indication that it ends there then I don't know what evasive tactic you've been using all these years, but they're probably far more creative than the standard."

"They are far more creative, thank you," Robin replied. "And I wasn't talking about the sex. She was hurt and wouldn't tell me how it happened."

"Kin." I explained further, telling him how they jumped me. Begrudgingly admitted that Cassie swooped down in the nick of time, how she was hurt and how we went back to the apartment to clean up. "Things just went..."

"Horizontal from there?" Robin supplied.

"It wasn't always horizontal." Goodfellow smiled at that, but I couldn't really drudge up the emotion to follow. "Not that it matters. One crazy night. You get your best friend back and I go on with my menial existence."

"Let me tell you something about Castiella." Robin sighed as if it were a chore to paint a picture for the local idiot. "She is every sin and every virtue rolled into one body. Which means she probably more 'human' than any of us." He used the air quotes and paused to assess Niko, who _was_ the only human among us. He decided against retracting his statement and I didn't blame him –Niko rarely partook in half the blissful sins known to his species and practiced the virtues almost too righteously. "It also means she has a lot of the same insecurities and fears. A big one, I'm sure you can relate too," a pointed look at me, "is the fear that others will be hurt because of her or her situation."

"Her uncles."

Robin lifted his eyebrows and nodded. "They want her dead, with the exception of Ishiah, for what she did thousands of years ago. And sleeping with the local half Auphe will not help her sentence. And yet, she's drawn to you for obvious reasons." I shot him a shocked look for the subtle compliment and he snorted. "You've both been through the same rejection. Stuck with family that despises you or wants to use you for horrible purposes. She calls you little lamb, because she can tell you are just as lost as she used to be. Cassie wants to help you, but she fears involving you in her affairs. I'm sure your mediocre display of cunning and battle skills have strengthened her resolve."

Amazing, even hungover this bastard could filibuster a courtroom for days. "Are you getting to a point eventually?"

"My point, you halfwit, is that she didn't leave in the middle of the night because she was done with you. She left because she likes you enough that she doesn't want you hurt. Sound familiar? Because I'm pretty sure you did the same 'standard' move when you hid like a pansy from Georgina."

"Don't," I warned. I let Robin insult me and mock me as much as he wanted on an extensive list of topics, but George was not one of them.

"The horrible thing is that it would be perfect," Robin went on, but at least he heeded my threat. He took up his coffee cup again, but didn't drink –I was a little in awe that it was out of a paper cup and not some gold inlaid mug that said 'world's greatest' and left it at that. Instead Goodfellow sighed and kneaded at his temple again, lamenting Cassie and my one night stand like it was Romeo and Juliet torn apart by their families. Hah, it kind of was, except instead of Montague and Capulet it was Auphe and peri. And back to Shakespeare references.

"Cal, she could give you everything you've ever needed or wanted or damned near dreamed about and..." Robin sobered and reclined in his chair again. "And you could save her from herself, but none of that matters because together you have a target the size of King Henry's posterior on your backs."

"Because the peris hate the Auphe and the uncles know I'm an Auphe."

"Mostly that, yes."

"What did she do, Robin?" Niko asked. I was glad to have the conversation steer away from my wants and needs, because having Robin confirm what my body didn't want to admit made avoiding her all the more difficult. Robin knew Cassie, knew her for a long while and knew me long enough to know what a girl had to put up with. Yet he said she'd be perfect. Experience had me doubt it, but Robin would sooner and gleefully tell me fat chance than he would lie and claim the opposite.

Robin took in a long breath, then stood from his chair. "Let's get some lunch, yes?"

I glanced over at Niko; we both knew a comment like that wasn't just to evade the topic. This was going to be a long story. At least he was offering refreshments this time.

We ended up in a middle class Japanese restaurant –probably slumming it for Robin– where we were hidden behind a rice paper partition from the few other patrons. I didn't think the walls would muffle much sound, but Goodfellow seemed more comfortable here. After the sushi and drinks were served –even hungover Robin ordered plum wine– he started into a story that lasted well into the early evening rush. But I sat there and I listened, more and more having to squelch the need to go see Castiella.

She said she knew the Auphe. I hadn't believed her and I'd been wrong. The first years of her life they had her. In Tumulus, trapped, just like me. Robin said she was so young that when she was released –yes, released like a caged animal– onto the Earth she knew nothing but the means to kill the peri race. The Auphe had used her as a tool in their long going feud and she'd been a very good tool. Three peri clans nearly extinct and an extensive body count throughout other clans sentenced her to death by any being's hands.

"The Auphe didn't aid her when their little assassin started becoming the hunted," Robin explained. He let off a little snort. "The concept that those hellions would offer anything to anyone is ludicrous to us, but to Cassie…they were her family and she was abandoned by them. She was lost and alone and learning what it was like to be prey. She started hating the Auphe." Robin paused to take a drink. I tried to contemplate what that would be like. I never considered the Auphe my family, not like I did Niko. They were always the enemy, but somehow what Cassie when through seemed worse. To actually believe those hideous bastards were all you had was sickening enough, then to think of the betrayal she felt when they just weren't there.

She'd been abandoned by everyone and everything she'd ever known.

"With the humans she realized she was something more. Like if a lamb could realize it was actually a lamb raised by a lion. She watched the humans in their simple Neanderthal lives. She interacted with them and found a whole new range of emotions. She wanted to be part of it, be accepted and loved and protected."

Such a silly pipe dream, but one I was familiar with. Robin went on to tell us how she immersed herself with the humans, evolved with them, which was how he stumbled upon her. She'd apparently come to her own by then, still constantly ducking the peris, but she hadn't killed in centuries. "Almost a millennium," Robin exaggerated. "And the only reason Cassie killed again, was to save me. Oh, there was this one time in Barcelona where the Evati, which was the Spanish father of the Kin, had staked out a monopoly on nearly every brothel in town, human and nonhuman. Now at the time there was the solider that had a fancy for Cassie, courting her with horrible poetry and exquisite pastries. She wanted none of it because he was human and she feared her strength with him and her past. So Cassie had placed a bet with me that I couldn't convince at least one lady in each house on the main strip to pay _me_. If she lost she would seal the deal with the Spanish soldier, if I lost I would drop it for once and for all."

"Point, Robin. Make you're point."

He snorted. "Are we feeling the niggling green-eyed monster rising up, Caliban?"

"I'm thinking more my fist in your green-eyed face."

Niko gave Robin that 'wrap it up' look as well and for once the puck begrudgingly adhered. "Anyway, the Evati busted in after I'd just convinced lady of the night number four, from the same brothel mind you, and they tried to tear me apart. Naturally, I slaughtered the pups in my way and left the brothel at Cassie's request. Reinforcements there brought it to twenty against two. With Cassie and I, it was hardly fair for the wolves, but she still tried to mediate. It, inevitably, ended in a blood bath. The Evati weren't pleased to say the least, which it why she and I, eventually, had to take out the majority of the Evati to stop them from constantly attacking us."

I'm sure my look was suspicious and Robin sneered. "Ask Delilah, many of the Kin are descendants of not just the Tokyo branch –because Kin comes from the Japanese glyph for 'gold' not from the Old English 'cyn' meaning of familial relation. The Kin nationality is varying. The Irish, the Spanish, the Israeli, the list goes on. Just like America is the melting pot of the world, so is the Kin to their criminally organized brothers. Some of the Kin are Evati descendants. They like to boast a different story, but Cassie and I are still in it."

"Are there any other races that Castiella has placed on the endangered species list?" Niko asked. Funny, that had been on my mind in similar words too. Three peri clans and now a sect of the werewolf mafia; who knew a little package like Cassie could kick so much ass.

"The Auphe," Robin replied. He placed his empty glass near the edge of the table in request for more. "You may have finished the job, but Cassie's been hunting them since the first century. I assume it was the Auphe's second kidnapping that pitted her against them."

"Second kidnapping?" I echoed. Robin cleared his throat uncomfortably. It was his tell that he was about to say something he knew he shouldn't, but it was Goodfellow so of course he would say it anyway.

"It was shortly after she stopped killing the peris in rebellion against the Auphe. I hadn't met her at this time and she's never been forthcoming with her early years, so I know very little of what happened. Cassie has confessed to me before that they attempted to brainwash her again. She told me they failed and tossed her back out, but never explained why they would do that. I was naive before, but I've seen how tenacious the Auphe are. Why would they just let her go? Eventually they avoided her because she kept stalking them and killing them. She would never engage them unless it was one and they could never seem to find her while they were in a pack." Robin paused and wet his lips as the server refilled his wine glass. "Cassie said something last night that concerns me, though. We were reminiscing and mocking old mistakes. Oh, like that one in Thailand where I..." he trailed off when I chucked a stray chopstick at him. He dodged it, frowned, and continued, "She said the second time the Auphe took her was 'about the time' she learned she couldn't have children."

My stomach dropped to my knees the moment the gears tripped into place in my head. It could be nothing, just a coincidence that she figured it out, but somehow I doubted that. And the female Auphe, when they had no other males, had planned the same for me. I hoped they would have waited until I was completely insane before using me as a stud, but I also doubted that. I was safe from them now, unless they figured out a way to come back from the grave, but Cassie didn't have the same skin of the teeth luck as I did. "Are you telling me the Auphe..."

"Forcibly mated with her to breed a more obedient tool, yes, but it's only an assumption. Breeding with her would create a rather amazing creature and they were still experimenting back then, probably already trying to bear something like you, Cal. And if they couldn't brainwash her and they wouldn't obtain offspring from her, then I could see them letting her go if only to try and find another use for her. Cassie has not confirmed or denied. I don't even know if the Auphe are capable of that particular kind of nefarious thought."

"They are," Niko cut in, square jaw set tensely. Goodfellow stared at Niko for a moment before his emerald eyes panned over to me. He asked the question without words, but I wasn't willing to supply the answer. Niko and I had kept that particular piece of information, regarding the female Auphes' sudden interest in me last year, a secret. The puck hadn't needed another reason to help me, of which should have been a warming thought. The only reason I hadn't told him was because I never _ever_ wanted to think about that reality.

"So I was right," Robin said slowly. He took a drink of his wine and shook his head; apparently alcohol _was _the sure-fire cure for a hangover, because Goodfellow looked much less piqued. Also, apparently, we couldn't hide secrets as well as we used to. "Why did you feel the need to keep that from me? Knowing that there were only females left, knowing what they wanted from Caliban, it would only have made me fight harder for him. I would never wish rape on anyone, especially if it involved an Auphe."

"Can we not talk about this?" I grumbled. The raw fish in my stomach was beginning to turn. Thinking about my possible fate with the Auphe made me think about what Cassie could have already have been through. I was beginning to understand what Robin had meant by saying she was perfect for me. Everything I'd been through, she'd survived as well. I could tell her anything and she'd understand. I could tell her things I didn't even express to Niko and she'd probably smile and touch my face in that coddling manner that didn't seem condescending when it really, probably, should. My perfect match was a peri…who'd have thought?

"You have work tonight, don't you?" Niko asked me, changing the subject but hardly derailing my thoughts.

"Ish told me to take the night off. He's even paying me." He actually said he would without me whining about it. Something about it not being my fault this time so I shouldn't have to suffer the consequences. I think it had more to do with him not wanting me to start a bar fight if daddy Godfeather was still around.

I ran a hand over my face and gazed over at my brother with my knuckles still to my lips. I was pleading, obviously so, and Niko caved after only a moment, which surprised me. "Go." I blinked and started getting up, but paused. I didn't think he was done after one word, so I waited for the limitations. "Just call me when you get there…and call me if you're staying the night."

I nodded and was out of the restaurant in less than a minute. I would let Niko figure out how to tell Robin I was crashing his apartment. The puck said it was a perfect match in a bad way and we shouldn't pursue it, but I couldn't help myself. I never liked it when people told me what to do. I would be the first idiot to press that big red button at the nuclear reactor plant and I knew it.

I wanted to talk to Cassie, more than I wanted to have sex with her again. Although, that was certainly in the back of my mind too. I made it to Goodfellow's apartment without Kin or any other incident. I called Niko before I even knocked on the apartment door, telling him, "Made it, safe," and promptly hung up. Then I knocked. No answer. I tried the door and it turned, unobstructed, under my palm.

Robin was one of the few people we gave a key to our apartment to. Promise had one as well, but she was usually too polite to use it. Robin never bestowed a key to his pan-cave upon us, but he also didn't feel the need to lock it when he or his ass-kicking best friend was home. After the stories I heard, I wouldn't want to be the thug-wanna-be that tried to jack Robin's television while he was out and Cassie was still in. Or Salome for that matter.

The mummy cat was lounging on the dinning room table, glowering at me with those disturbing black sockets for eyes that burned from the inside like fire embers. She didn't move though, save for a tail twitch.

"Cassie?" I called, thinking that announcing myself might be a good idea. Cassie could take me down with her thighs…yeah, somehow I didn't mind that thought. "Cas?"

There was a light laugh to my right and I turned. She was home and by her clothes hadn't planned on leaving said home anytime tonight. I never thought a girl could look sexy in plaid boxers and a tank top outside of a Victoria Secret catalogue, but again I was proven wrong. No bra this time, I noticed.

"Hi, I heard," I paused to swallow back the dryness in my throat. "I heard you weren't doing too hot." She did look like she'd been through a rough day. There were circles under her eyes and her skin around her collarbones was a little blotchy. Her hair was disheveled in that wake up first thing in the morning way, only more alluring. And I could smell the toothpaste overdose from where I stood.

"No one other than Robbie has ever called me Cas," she said. She ran her hands through her hair and laughed again. It was a little nervous in its music. "I certainly didn't expect visitors, so you'll have to pardon the train wreck."

I walked across Robin's exaggerated living room to her. There was a guest room tucked back in that corner, so I assumed that's where she'd been sleeping. "Did I wake you?"

"That obvious?"

I stopped directly in front of her and emphasized checking her out. "Well, for a girl who's been retching in the bathroom all day you still look…" I smiled at her. "Well, I'd still do ya."

"Ever the charmer, Mr. Caliban Leandros." I wanted to press her against the wall and kiss her, but considering how horrid I felt after puking from creating too-big gates I refrained. "What are you doing here? You didn't come over here to check on me."

I paused, thinking about coming clean and being honest, then doing it without much hesitation. "Robin told Niko and me about what you've been through."

Cassie stiffened, dark eyes flickering to each of mine in panic. "What did he tell you?"

"About the Auphe, how they used you. I didn't really believe you when you said you knew what they were like and what they could do, but I was wrong. You might know it better than I do."

Cassie made a little sound to disagree and shook her head. "Don't compare. It's not comparable." She ducked her head for a moment, then leaned back against the wall. "So he told you about the peris?"

"And the Evati. You've been a busy girl." She still looked utterly shamed and I didn't like that. "Hey, I didn't mean that as an insult. It's like Robin said: you're no more a killer than Niko and I…well, Niko. We kill to survive—"

"You're not a killer," Cassie interrupted. At least she met my eyes again, even if it was during a sigh. "Why are you here?"

I took in a deep breath and shoved my hands in my pockets. "To be honest, it's a rather selfish reason." She lifted her eyebrows with a cute smirk on her face. "There are things in my head that shouldn't stay there if I want to stay sane and on the anti-Auphe bandwagon. And you might be the only one who'll understand."

"You want to talk?" Cassie asked, confused. I nodded, a little embarrassed to confess. Cassie smiled and tucked a piece of dark blond hair behind her ear, before she pushed off the wall and threaded her fingers around the edges of my jacket. "Okay, I'll listen under one condition."

"What's that?"

She snickered and pressed onto her toes. Her mouth brushed mine with the lightest of touches, but I could still feel the warmth of her breath and the languid movement. I grinned. "You sure you're up for it?"

Cassie scoffed and pulled me toward her as she backed up down the hall. 

Amazing didn't even begin to describe the night. Not only did I get to have breathtaking sex with a peri again, but I got say things I never imagined I'd be able to aloud. And she listened, quietly. And she touched my chin or my hair in a comforting lulling manner every moment I started hating myself. Like she knew. Maybe she did. And the things I confessed I wouldn't to any priest or lawyer regardless of the whole in confidence thing. They were things I didn't tell Niko, my own brother, the person who raised me. Maybe it was because she'd been through the cold and tumble hell of Tumulus too, maybe it was because she'd killed so many to survive, or maybe it was just because I could walk away from her and never see her again like I couldn't with Niko. Whatever it was, I spilled my guts, and when I was done, when I couldn't say anymore, she kissed me.

Cassie kissed me with unexpected gentleness. She slipped over me with the grace of flowing water and brushed my dark hair back to kiss my forehead, my lips, my throat. She held me and without words she told me she understood, told me I wasn't a monster, told me that I could still be desired. We had sex for hours, talked for longer, until I was so exhausted I couldn't even think about everything racing through my brain. Like how this was different. How sleeping with her felt more tender and intense than anything I'd ever experienced. How when she looked at me it meant something more.

That scared the shit out of me. But spent, I fell asleep; Cassie curled up against my shoulder and drifting as well. All I really remembered was the last thought in my head before I passed out. A very Cal-esque soundbite of wisdom: I'd worry about this tomorrow. 

And tomorrow came far too quickly.

"Cal...Cal?" I heard her, but my body didn't want to respond. Let me rephrase that; my body didn't want to wake up, but when her hand dragged down my chest it certainly responded. I couldn't remember the dream I was having, but it had encouraged little Cal to half mast before I even woke so it had to have been good. Plus I was still tried from last night and there was something I was avoiding in the morning, right? "Cali...wake up."

I cracked one eye to see Cassie leaning over me. She was showered and changed and looked far too awake at, I glanced at the radio clock by her bed, noon... "Fuck me, Niko's going to flip out."

Cassie laughed and placed a hand on my chest to keep me from clumsily scrambling out of the bed. "He called last night, while you were sleeping. I told him you were safe and let him listen to you breathing, which is a little creepy that your brother knows your breathing pattern."

I dropped back to the bed frame and snorted. "He's a little eccentric." That was putting it lightly, but Cassie would have plenty of time to figure that out. I paused and stared down at her hand to my chest, shocked that I'd actually entertained a long term thought. I never did that. With my track record, not only in girls but in life in general, nothing lasted and I never hoped for it to.

"You okay?" Cassie asked, crawling up next to me on the bed. She sat at the head with me. "Last night was pretty intense, so if you need some time alone I won't be insulted. I could go make you some breakfast. I make a mean Santa Fe scramble." I stared at her, brain not processing any of this. "The key is ranch dressing. Are you sure you're okay?"

Nevermind that I never replied the first time. I wasn't okay. I remembered this feeling with George. It was different; maybe more fiery than sun-bathed warmth, more electric than pleasantly tingling, but I knew it. I was growing much too attached to Cassie. She was, as Robin said, perfect for me and that meant one thing. "You're going to die."

Cassie's chin jerked to her chest in surprise, then she laughed. "Okay. I've heard of people being cranky before their morning coffee, but cryptic is a new one."

"If you stay with me you're going to die. That's how my history goes, so get out while you can."

"Cali." She said it like it was an old argument we used to have all the time. I hated that I kind of liked the nickname, or maybe just the way she said it. I shook myself out of my stupor and shimmied to the edge of the bed in search of my clothes.

"I need to go."

"Cal, stop it. Talk to me." Cassie tried to grab for my arm, but I swung it away. Grabbing my boxers, I pulled them on and snatched my tee shirt from the ground next to my shoes.

"I don't want to talk about it, Cas– Cassie. Robin's right, this will only lead to one of us dying. With the way you fight, it'll probably be me, but if they kill me—" The air left my lungs as I suddenly found myself belly up on the bed with Cassie pinning me down. I tensed, ready to claw and kick for my life, but Cassie just loomed over me. She only wanted to stop me from leaving.

"I would _never_ let them hurt you, understand?" she told me sternly. I glanced down at her thighs stretched over my hips, her body curved over me and round innocent face inches from mine. Apparently, I liked it a little rough because this was turning me on; damned hormones. Of course that certainly explained my attraction toward Delilah.

"Cassie," I started, but couldn't find the right verb or noun to continue for the life of me.

"Cal, I'm not going to die. Not because of you. I've made plenty of my own mistakes, trust me," she paused and loosened her vice grip on my wrists. I almost shudder when she dropped her forehead to my shoulder and her hair slid over my bare chest. "Damn it all, I like you, Cal. I haven't felt so comfortable around someone before. I know I'm putting you in danger, but I don't want to stop."

Her arms curled up, wedging between our chests. She tucked her nose against my chin, warm breath over my throat and the soft treble of her voice rippling through my sternum. "Please. Let me just feel normal for a little while? I swear I can protect you from my uncles. I can protect you from the Kin too. Once you're sick of all this, then you can just tell me you're done. I'm used to being—"

"Cassie," I cut in, not wanting to hear her say what I'd thought and said so many times with sarcasm. Used to being thrown away, disregarded, looked down upon. I dropped my head to the pillow beneath my head and sighed out in loud frustration. Her hair receded from my chest as she lifted her head. "I'm trying to be a responsible adult here and you're ruining it."

She giggled, soft and lilting. I looked up at her, met her dark mahogany eyes and couldn't help but take her chin and tilt it toward me. I kissed her, then bit my own lip as we parted. "All right, so we know the shit were getting into, right?" She nodded and smirk on her lips. "Me being half Auphe makes you a leper. You being hunted by the peris makes me target practice. But we still want to try this because you can slaughter a pack of wolves single-handedly and I have a big gun with explosive rounds and that is not a euphemism so stop laughing."

She didn't stop laughing, even as she kissed me. She didn't stop me from sliding my hands under her shirt either. Her mouth melded to mine as we wrestled the rest of her clothes back off and I kicked out of my boxers. And we said screw the world. We were going to do what _we_ wanted for once.

By the time we got around to eating it was an early dinner, but I still asked for breakfast.


	11. Chapter 11 Robin

**CHAPTER ELEVEN**

**ROBIN**

I remembered the first time Cassie made me scrambled eggs. She'd been hungover after a winery fair in Greece and hadn't quite woken up while at the helm of the stove. Thus she began throwing nearly every perishable our current host had in his kitchen, including eggs, tomatoes, onions, cheddar, sweet peppers, milk, and even honey. It was possibly the most delectable dish I'd had in a while; and we'd been in the presences of a senate member who had his own team of cooks at the time.

I remembered her laughing at the look on my face, surprised that I enjoyed the haphazard mixture as much as I did. And her laugh was contagious. Like a melody you couldn't get out of your head. The senate member dined with us right on the wooden slab in his kitchen. No servants around, no guards, no pretension. It was always like that with Cassie. If you put up a front she'd find a way to break to down, get behind the mask and kiss the creature lurking within as if it were a brother to her darkness.

No surprise, that being said, when I came back to the apartment, I found them in the kitchen sitting side by side on the island stools, laughing, and eating from the same plate. The scent of her now mastered scramble hung in the air with sweet tang and reminded me that I hadn't eaten since breakfast at Ishiah's. He shooed me out around ten so he could reign in his brothers before they went out on the streets with pitchforks and murder on their tongues. Now he was probably attempting to manage his bar as well, while I had to kill several hours at work and my favorite suit shop.

When Cal had dashed out of the restaurant yesterday, I shamefully hadn't picked up where he was heading. Niko told me to avoid my apartment for a while and, despite my gut telling me this would end as disastrously as the powdered wig revitalization of the 17th century, I adhered. I let Cal and Cassie meet again and seeing their faces now, I honestly wasn't sure if I cared what happened next. 'Tis better to have loved and lost than to never have loved at all, yes?

They didn't even noticed when I slipped into the apartment, only looking up when I approached the kitchen. I draped my newest addition to my charcoal suit collection over one of the dining chairs and leaned against the island across from them. Cal was smiling, genuinely instead of the usual 'I'm giddy because I get to kill something' smile. And Cassie was nearly glowing. Perhaps I didn't give Cal enough credit in the bedroom department; he certainly seemed to satisfy Cassie's tastes. "I'm not interrupting anything, am I?"

"You would be disappointed if you weren't," Cassie countered and offered me a forkful of egg and diced tomato dipped in dressing. I leaned over the island to bite it off the fork and winked at her.

"To be honest I'm surprised Cal's still here. I figured Niko would have dragged you out by your hair by now." I picked a piece of green pepper off the plate.

Cal shot me a glare. "I'm not a child."

"Obviously," I teased. Cal continued scowling. The carefree smile was gone, but likewise I loved enticing that grumpy pout on the kid's face.

Cassie offered me her fork when I popped another piece of egg into my mouth. I wasn't about to decline; I missed her cooking almost as much as I missed her. When I started partaking in the breakfast delight, I kept an eye on the two of them. Cassie knocked her shoulder to Cal's, resting her forehead to his shoulder just briefly, before their eyes met and they smiled in that secret way. It was more adorable than Bonnie and Clyde; cute couple actually, sweet as hell to each other. I just hoped that Cassie and Cal didn't endure the same fate.

"I probably should go. Nik's still a little rattled after the Kin attack." I stifled a smile at the deep reluctance in Cal's tone. Cassie jutted her lower lip out in pleading reply, but Cal still got up from his seat. "Mostly I'm just going to punch Robin in the face if he keeps looking so smug." I chuckled, but held my tongue again. Cal should have been proud of me, not testy.

Caliban paused, both of us watching him, but Cassie was his focus. He leaned over his vacated chair and dropped a kiss to her mouth. "Thank you." It was said with more meaning than a 'thanks for the good time', and it forced me to shove another forkful of egg into my mouth to keep from commenting.

"Anytime," Cassie replied in a throaty whisper. Cal hesitated for another moment, tossed another glare at me, then tapped the island counter and headed out. "Later, little lamb," Cassie called after him and he attempted the callous over the shoulder wave.

The front door clipped shut and I shifted my gaze toward Cassie. She tried to keep a straight face of innocence, but I knew her better than that and she soon caved and showed me a bashful smile. "Stop looking at me like that."

"All night and all day. I had to go on a road trip with him, I know how difficult that should have been," I countered. "Details, give them now."

"No," Cassie scolded. She smacked at my arm across the island. "Though I will give you credit for not goading him on too much."

"I try, but in all seriousness, you spent twenty four hours with him," I raised my eyebrows in question. I'd been in these clothes for twenty four hours...well, _in _them for probably twelve, and I was itching to change out of them. I showered at Ishiah's, but the wrinkles forming at the arms and around my waist were driving me crazy. I didn't want to leave Cassie though, not when I thought I might be able to get something out of her.

"I did. And it was nice. We talked, we had sex, and we ate. That was the extent of it."

I wrinkled my nose. "Spoiled sport."

"Pervert." Cassie rolled her eyes and slid off the bar stool right after insulting me. Though it wasn't much of an insult when it was partially true and eagerly accepted. She rounded the island and pulled me away from my leaned position over it. "Stop fidgeting, you'll make the wrinkles worse." She tugged off my leather belt and yanked my shirt out of the pant waist line. I held up my arms as she smoothed the shirt over my hips, trying not to grab her and take her to the counter; a trained reaction when I female ripped my shirt out of my pants. She didn't take anything else off though and gave me a warning look when she caught my expression. "Not an invitation."

"Are you and Cal exclusive now?"

"No, but I believe you and my uncle are." I frowned. That was a terse tone, one where her lineage could be subtly heard like slashing daggers in the musical treble of her voice. I caught her arm before she walked away from me and turned her about, holding both her shoulders.

"What's wrong?"

Cassie's full lips pressed together in a pout of contained tears. "You didn't tell him everything." I shook my head; I'd been wondering the whole time if I should, but thought exposing the truth would make it spread and therefore get Castiella killed. Of course the picture I painted became something Cal could never resist, so I supposed I thwarted that part of Ishiah's plan up.

"He told me everything," Cassie whispered on. Her dark eyes flickered up to mine, the scent of Hawthorne flower and sex were still clinging to her. "He really told me everything he's been through, all his thoughts no matter how vile or malevolent. He told me because he trusts me and knows I'll understand, but I can't even tell him..." She rubbed at her lashes before the tears could form enough to slip down. I felt my heart ache for her. For Cal too. He told Niko and myself what he could, what he deemed not too insane, but to tell Cassie everything was a huge psychological step.

"Are you in love with him, Cas?"

She let off a small laugh, then it turned into a little whimper and she covered her face. "I don't know. I'm just so scared I'll lose him if I tell him the truth."

"Are you kidding?" I started to argue, but the house phone interrupted me. I was tempted to plow on and tell her she was being as hard-headed and moronic as the Prussian soldiers I met back in 1800. Drowning woes and insecurities in local pubs, they feared danger before it struck. Just like Cassie was denying that sometimes impending danger wasn't inevitable. Of course in the Prussian soldiers case it was inevitable and united they fell. The Holy Alliance was a silly idea anyway; religion never ruled in peace. Right, I gave up on Cassie shortly after that. Woke up in a Russian inn, alone and with the distinct sensation of someone watching gone.

Instead of lecturing her on this and many other things, I picked up the phone after the second ring. "Yeah?"

"Get Cassie out of there," Cal's breathy and panicked voice ordered. I straightened, argument with Cassie lost.

"Cal, what's going on?" He was running I could hear the thump and vibrations of footfalls over the line and the staccato of his breathing. He paused in an alley of some sort, because the footsteps stopped and there was a minute echo.

"Ishiah couldn't stop them this time. The peris figured out where she is; they're coming for her." He paused to take in a few breaths. "I distracted them, but they saw me come out of the apartment—"

"Distracted them? Cal, are the Cheris brothers after you right now?" Cassie rushed up next to me to grab the phone, but I pushed her away and blocked the receiver.

"I called Niko first," Caliban assured me. "I have reinforcements on the way."

"Zeus' multi-species harem, Cal you can't do this!" I cried out. Cassie tried for the phone again and, when I wouldn't give it, she dashed across the room. "Cassie, wait! Shit, Cal hide!"

"Stop Cassie," he answered, knowing she was on a rampage to get to him without seeing. I slammed the phone down and ran after Castiella. Only quick enough to watch her sail on black peppered white wings off my balcony.

"Damn it!" I slammed my palm to the iron railing, then spun back into the apartment. I needed my swords and didn't care if I had my coat to hide it. I managed to grab it on my way out the door, mostly because my cell phone was still in the pocket and I needed that. I took off down the stairs, leaping down several flights and leaving my neighbors looking at me like I was a lunatic.

On the street, I flipped out my cell, jamming my thumb down on three. Maybe they would never be the first on speed dial, but I wasn't crazy enough not to have Niko's number at the ready. And right then, he was probably the only one to know Caliban's location other than the peris who were about to kill him. "Where is he?"

I didn't wait for the standard greetings when the click of the connection hit and Niko didn't wait for me to finish my sentence. "Six blocks south, eight west." Damn it, he was putting out some Auphe speed there; maybe his morning runs did have some affect on his pert lazy ass. I snapped the phone closed and focused on eating the significant space between us. It was near rush hour now so taking the car would just put me into the hands of the traffic gods and they were some right nasty bastards. And what the hell were the peris thinking? This wasn't the super-powers side of town. I lived among the humans, I liked living among the humans, because this epic fighting shit usually didn't occur!

I pounded down the pavement faster. Niko had a peg on Cal's location with the cell phone GPS, but that didn't mean he was anywhere near his brother. I'd heard the stories Cal had told me the last time little brother was thought to be dead. I didn't want to be witness to the second show as impressive as it might be.

I skidded on the sidewalk at the sixth block, grabbing a pedestrian light pole to swing around and hurdle a trashcan. Gasps of those in awe followed me, but now wasn't the time to grant them more reason to worship my skills. My friend was in trouble, my _best _friend was diving in to her death to rescue him, and all the while all I could think was how much easier this would have all been if I'd just told them everything. If I'd just let Cassie tell them—

"_Gamoto_." The curse slipped from my lips right before I was thrown against the nearest surface, which happened to be the uncomfortable side of a crumbling brick wall, by a shadow that had been looming in the alley. "Hello, Izra. Taking a walk?"

The massive male narrowed molten gold eyes and lifted me off my shoes; vintage Bruno Magli and now ruined from the run. Izrahiah tilted his head to one side, baring teeth that one would expect to be jagged to match the death glare on his sharp face. What came from his mouth was perian, not a language I'd bothered to learn more than a few key phrases in and dare I say, I doubted he'd appreciate me asking if he and the misses would like join me at my hotel room. The language was quite beautiful, sounding Latin in origin with Spanish inflection and the added harmonies of subtle bird chirps. Of course Latin probably came from their language and not the other way around.

I waited for him to finish repeating himself. He shook me once, but hadn't decided to cut off my airways yet. "Sorry, could you repeat the question in one of the hundreds of languages I do know?"

"Where is she?" he snarled. I kicked at his lung, wedging my toe just under his ribcage enough to have him stumble back and release me. My sword was unsheathed and parallel in front of me in the next second.

"Don't know. She's a little like the wind sometimes. You never know where it's going."

Izrahiah ruffled his wings then swept them forward to box my ears. I dodged backward into the brick wall, flinching when it clipped my skull. Parrying his broadsword let me pivot into the alley though, facing him without my back to the wall. He swung his blade down in a swift arch, much swifter than one should wield a broadsword one-handed, but not quick enough to catch me. Surviving for thousands of years made me master of many things and agility was top of the list.

I ducked, spun and kicked at one leg to trip him. Izra didn't even flinch, thick leg firmly in place like a damn tree root. He plunged the sword down on me as I gathered my legs after the abrupt recoil. Missed, though it created impressive sparks against the pavement. I backpedaled a few graceful steps, assessing his movements as he lumbered towards me with his wings flexing. I knew from experience larger creatures were all brute strength and little flexibility. I just needed to force him to strike me with all this strength and he wouldn't be able to recover quickly enough to parry my attack.

I rolled my shoulders, ready to enter the fray again, when I caught a glimpse of something slipping into the alley behind Izra. I shifted on my feet, relief washing over me. Time for some distracting conversation. "Izra, you realize what a bad idea this is? She decimated an army in the Braquez clan."

"If she wants you and her new mate to survive, she will surrender her life."

Anger blazed through me. I did not appreciate becoming collateral damage. "That is laughable. You think for a moment I believe you would allow Caliban to live? The only reason he survived without you trying to kill him before was because you didn't know he existed. But now that you know he's the last male Auphe, he's dead the moment you can get through Cassie and his brother. Which is quite near impossible. And use me as bait? Hah, let's see you try."

"The last male Auphe?" Izra echoed. His wings arched up, not in rage, but a form of shock. "The Auphe are that far into extinction?"

I lowered my sword just slightly. He hadn't known? Well, I supposed we never really put it in the news letter, but I figured some rumors would have flown out to the peris by now. Maybe I could reason with him yet. "No, Izrahiah. The Auphe are dead. Castiella and Caliban have finished the task you and the peris could never complete. All the Auphe are dead. So you see there is no reason—"

"There is every reason," Izrahiah spat back, literally; a little spittle almost hit the helm of my slacks. "Not all the Auphe are dead. The end of that blasphemous race is at my sons' fingertips. I will see it end tonight."

"Blasphemous?" It was an odd word for a peri to choose; they were not the angels the lore claimed them to be and they never liked being associated with the Lord and God and all those overstated capital lettered nouns. Sometimes though, just sometimes, one of them would get god-fever and think they were the know all, end all. I was not the slighted bit surprised the great Izrahiah turned out to be one of them. "Izra—"

"Stop speaking to me with familiarity, filthy goat!" His white blond hair kicked up when he pressed his wings abruptly against the current. I had to shield my face when the dust swirled around me. "You sully my son. Taint him with your defiling thoughts. Befriend and hide the traitor that murdered our kin, _Ishiah's_ kin. You are filth. Worth no words, not even the consideration I give you now."

"Consideration?" I laughed. "What con—"

"Leave," Izra barked. He slashed his glinting sword through the empty air before him and pointed the tip toward the way I'd come without looking. I could hear the muffled shots of a silenced gun just six more blocks away at my back and watched the figure slink down the wall of the alley toward us. "Show me the self-preservation your cowardly kind is so well known for."

"See, that's the thing," I countered. I smirked and leaned back on the soles of my damaged shoes. "I'm a changed puck. Which is why this ragtag team of misfits gets along so well. A half Auphe with a compassionate soul, a human who could slice out the heart of any creature of the night before it even caught his scent, a vampire who downs pills instead of the blood of her human lover, a monogamous puck who loves a good fight, and a peri, who behind closed doors, loves a good drink and a good time. We aren't like _our__kind_. And that's where every one of you makes your mistakes."

"No mistakes," Izrahiah argued. But he did make a mistake and I smiled as the shadow approached within blade distance behind him. The little light filtering in from between the buildings caught the pale highlights in his long blond braid. His trench coat didn't even flap against his legs. I was never so happy to see his sexy body prowl toward me. Well, before Ishiah I would have preferred it to be a different kind of prowl and with much less clothing. "I have never made a mistake."

"I highly doubt that," Niko corrected. Izrahiah spun to slice him down, but his blade had already over shot it. The human lunged, with one hand clamped around Izrhiah's armed wrist and the other driving a katana home. I followed Niko's lead, vaulting at Izrahiah as well. The massive male, with his gold laden wings stretched high and voice bellowing with ferocity, fell when Niko and my swords crossed within him. A jolt and then he stilled and tumbled to the alley grime. One of us had gotten the heart. Niko wrenched his blade back out with an impressive spurt of blood. I had to brace my foot to the trunk-sized torso in order to pull mine free.

Correction, we'd both gotten his heart. In a heap of muscle, girth, and feathers the biggest peri I'd ever known was dead at my feet. "Why did I ever fear him? I could have done that myself."

"You could have," Niko agreed, wiping his blade on his black jeans. "Why didn't you?" He shoved at my chest to get me out of the way and was off as fast as the bullets that were still softly pinging off the building walls. I doubted the humans could hear that, but if any of them saw something the cops would come soon. Or the Vigil, and either way Cal didn't want to remain. I stared down at the man who had me avoiding Ishiah for decades at a time. The bastard that threatened and bullied his own granddaughter to the point that she hid for centuries. A being I feared just because he breathed intimidation down my neck. How silly of me.

I kicked him in his slack face, then spun and sprinted after Niko. There were still four more to go and I needed to try and keep those assholes alive. Niko would slaughter them if they hurt Caliban, and I loathed them, but they were Ishiah's only family...

"Shit," Niko hissed out and I halted behind him. It was around the last bend, hidden away between an old condemned bakery and a consignment shop; the slaughter of the Cheris clan leaders. The blood congealed in a perfect circle, spraying out like a ring on fire, and on either side of the line were the scattering of body parts, entrails, various shades of blond hair in tuffs and scalp-capped dreads, and heavy chucks of feathers and wings. Like macabre confetti. Dead center knelt Caliban, breathing heavy, eyes wide and gun aimed directly at his brother and I. They were gray though, no sign that he'd lost it, or broke the inhibitor on his brain.

"Cal..." Niko called, lowering his blade to comfort his brother. It took me a moment to realize the body in his arms wasn't in pieces. Red-stained layers of blond hair cascaded over Cal's supporting arm, keeping her head from lolling in unconsciousness. She still had her charcoal kissed wings bent awkwardly beneath her, still had her chest rising and falling at the healthy rate of sleep. And Cal held her protectively, despite what he'd just seen, despite the horrors that just revealed themselves, so I let him. I scanned the sphere of dismembered peris around them, picking out a distinguishable head or torso here and there. I frowned.

"We're missing one," I told Niko. The human had crossed over the gore and stooped next to Cal. Two pairs of gray eyes flickers up to me. "Joel. I don't see him here."

"Ran with four bullets in him. Went to get their father," Cal answered. He lowered his gun, but didn't drop it even when he used to the barrel to help readjust Cassie in his arms. His tone bled harsh at his next words, gaze narrowed upon me. "Why didn't you tell us? Why did you keep this a secret? Of all—" he cut himself off, shook his head. "I just shut it without thinking and she went down."

I started to speak, started to apologize –which was something I didn't normally do– but stopped when the beating of wings sounded overhead. Joel was still out there, alone and only going to find his father dead, but he was still out there. And a vengeful peri was like a woman scorned. Niko shot to his feet, clutching his katana and setting sights above the rise of the buildings. Cal shifted Cassie in his arms, reloading his weapon around her body as it rested against his chest.

There was a solid thump of a landing in the shadows of the alleyway behind us and Niko was at my side, defending his brother and our fallen friend. My stomach plummeted when the tall figure stepped into the light of the dead end; I wished for a bloodbath at that moment instead of my lover approaching with wide gold eyes.

"Ishiah." I started forward. Niko remained at the ready, as did Caliban, probably assuming the peri would turn on them now that his family lay bloody on the pavement. I knew better. I touched a hand to Ishiah's sword arm. Sliding my fingers down, I disarmed him and took care in slipping the weapon into its sheath on his belt. "I'm sorry, Ishiah. I was too late to stop it—"

"Is she alive?" His tone was sharp to hide his sorrow, but my comrades took it as a threat and I almost feel Cal's finger tighten on the trigger. Ishiah's gaze was trained on the center of the dismal circle, face expressionless. His jaw clenched, but didn't make any move to go to her. Not that I blamed him; Cal probably would have shot him a few times. After seeing Joel dash off with several holes in him, Cal knew it wouldn't kill Ishiah. And while, I wasn't positive Caliban wouldn't _try_ to kill Ishiah, I knew he wouldn't make the attempt without damned good reason. "Get out of here."

"Ish—"

His eyes darted to me and gave a stern glare. "I followed the sirens here. The Vigil is on the way. Get her out of here."

"Cal, start toward the alley," Niko ordered. He slipped his katana under his coat. "We can't walk around with her like that. I'll get us a cab...or something." He breezed passed Ishiah and I, with only a brief clasp of his hand to Ishiah's shoulder –an obvious apology– before he disappeared into the shadows.

I rushed over to help Cal get Cassie situated in his arms without the gun going off. She didn't look injured other than a slash to her upper arm from a sword tip and the few blood splashes that were painted over her didn't seem to be hers. Cal continued to bestow a rather scathing glare upon me as he lifted her, cradled in his arms. "I got her."

"Cal—"

"I got her. Ish needs you more right now," he countered sharply. Gun now holstered, he carried Cassie away from me. If it were anyone else, anyone other than him or Niko, I would have taken her away. Fought them by the skin of my teeth, scooped her up, and ran. But it was Caliban and by the fierce look in his eyes, he wasn't about to let her go and he wasn't about to let anyone else touch her. Good. Maybe the lies wouldn't destroy them.

So I stayed back, tip-toeing back around the circle of drying blood. For once I said nothing, for once I didn't force my touch upon him. I waited and stood before Ishiah. He finally let his eyes fall to the victims and obvious aggressors of this battle. He pursed his lips, then looked at me. "I knew it would come to this, but it doesn't make it easier."

"It never does," I agreed. He hooked my palm with a finger, then intertwined our fingers. I stepped closer, slipped my other hand around his waist, and kissed to his tense jaw. "I'm sorry, Ishiah."

"My father. Did he try to kill you or Niko?" I dropped my forehead to his shoulder, guilty for my hasty attack. Granted, Izrahiah might have let me go out of respect for his son's 'infatuation', but he would have never let Cassie or Cal live through the night. I had to stop him, hoping that I would get there before Cassie had to shed the blood of her brethren. When I didn't readily answer, Ishiah sighed and ran his free hand over my jaw and into my curly hair. He gripped it a little roughly, but I didn't complain. I also didn't make any 'inappropriate comments', as Ishiah called them, it just didn't seem like the right moment.

Ishiah kissed me and braced his forehead to mine, eyes closed, but wings still exposed and rocking on his back with anxiousness. I caressed one curve of white-gold feathers and used our intertwined hands to push his chin up and kiss him again. "I'm sorry."

"Stop it," Ishiah breathed out. "You aren't guilty, you don't need to apologize. You were defending the lives of your friends, just like Castiella was defending her own life. You both won the privilege of living tonight. I'm not going to hold that against you."

The sirens were drawing closer and I began wondering if we should have swept up the shell casings or tried to find the stray bullets left over from Cal's gun. Glancing around, I realized there weren't any to sweep up nor were there bullet holes in the building walls; I'd really underestimated Caliban's marksmanship and intelligence. It seemed most of those bullets were still inside the dead or fled peris. "We should go too," I told Ishiah. I didn't want to be caught up in the next peris war and the Androma clan, which held territory here, would have more than a few ruffled feathers finding out the heads of the Cheris clan were dismembered. The Androma were even less of a match for Cassie, but where there was a clan in need there was an army of mixed peris at your door.

Ishiah bowed his head with his eyes closed, possibly saying a prayer for his fallen brothers or possibly just apologizing and saying goodbye. Either way, I started to leave. Giving him that peace alone. It was the few steps I took into the darkened alley closest to me that allowed the panicked voice of Niko to reverberate over the sirens. I paused and strained my ears to listen. If it was another fight I needed to be prepared. Ishiah came up beside me on silent feet and we hesitated only a moment longer.

"Cal!" I darted down the alley with Ishiah on my heels. I could hear Niko's words now. They weren't those of a swordsman mid-battle, but of an anxious brother searching. Cal was missing and with Cal was Cassie. Damn it, I wasn't willing to lose either of them, let alone both. I kicked off the street light when I plowed into the street with a little more power than necessary and nearly knocked Niko down. We grabbed each other's upper arms to steady; Niko knew it was me before I'd even breached the alley way, I was sure.

The streets weren't vacant, no, there were many more bodies than expected after a gun fight. Of course, human curiosity was a death-dealer and there were plenty of them rubber-necking as they passed the scene. There was little blood on Niko, even less on myself, but we were still armed and the blades were not hidden as well as our usual consideration provided.

"I can't find Cal," Niko breathed out. He waved off the taxi he'd previous hailed when the cabby cursed at him for taking too long. The yellow vehicle sped out into traffic with the eagerness of one who probably didn't want the authorities to see him. "I got the cab and went back for him, but he was gone. Cassie and Cal are gone."

"His cell?" I asked. Niko held up the phone in hand, which had me assume it was Caliban's otherwise Niko would already have a hit on his location.

"Did you see anything on the street?" Niko gave Ishiah a scathing glare and motion to the commotion behind us. I turned my gaze upon the roads, watching people peek around corners, cars move out of the way for the ambulance and police cars. And something caught my attention. It was not even that subtle. A large black van swerved between two cop cars and the police didn't even bat an eye. They let it go, even if it looked like it was fleeing a crime scene. And on the back right next to the plate number was a familiar symbol in stark white.

"Niko," I snapped, smacking his arm so he stopped arguing with my boyfriend. The overprotective human followed my fixed gaze and probably didn't need me to reiterate what we both knew. "The Vigil." Those bastards caught the last Auphe.


	12. Chapter 12 Cal

**Chapter Twelve**

**CAL**

There was this cave hidden away near the Blue Ridge Parkway in Virginia that I used to hide in. In retrospect, it wasn't surprising that I found a dark, cold, confined rock formation comforting. Niko spent hours trying to find me the first time I scuttled away to my sanctuary away from our drunken mother's latest tirade declaring me the new Lucifer. He didn't even scold me when he found me curled up at the bottom of a five foot tunnel. He just coaxed me out, took me home for something akin to dinner, and every other time I disappeared when we lived there he knew exactly where to find me.

I was beginning to reconsider the comfort of small confined spaces when I woke up in the equivalent of an above ground coffin. My eyes opened to pitch black and, once I caught my breath, my hands pressed to cold metal about ten inches from my nose. I wasn't restrained; my feet kicked at the metal tomb, but they could move. My arms were free, though they had little room to maneuver save for the few meager punches I threw at the dome above me.

I stopped when I could smell the iron of blood on my knuckles. The little extra strength I might have gained from my Auphe linage wasn't going to help me here. Pressing my palms to the coffin above, I took in several more breaths of stale air. If I panicked that air would be lost and I would be dead before I even figured out how the hell I got here. How the _hell_ did I get here?

Cassie...where was Cassie? I had her in my arms. Leaned against a brick wall, I was waiting for Niko to get a cab. Niko, did he see what happened? I saw them, dark shapes in the alley. Humans. They were human. Why did a human shoot a fucking dart into my neck? Right, that's what happened. I picked Cassie up as soon as I saw movement behind the trash bins, started for the opening of the alley, where Nik had gone. I dodged the first shot enough that if it'd been a bullet it would have ineffectually grazed my shoulder. That was where I saw the bright blue flight panels on the end of the 'bullet', right before another pierced my neck.

I went down. I couldn't stop it. I guess I was a little human after all.

So now was the big question. How the hell did I get out of this? I ran my fingers along the curve of the tomb, catching a seam halfway down the side. The same on the other side. Of course this only solidified the concept that this was a coffin I'd been placed in. Then again I supposed it could have been worse. No one poured wet cement on me for one thing.

I scratched my nails down the seam; felt a hinge at my shoulder and another at my knee. I cursed that I never had Robin school me on lock picking as he boasted he would. It might have come in a bit handy right then. So would a crow bar and some leverage. I shifted to see if I was left with anything usable, flip knife, my throw away at my ankle, even the fucking buckle to my holster. But those bastards picked me clean. Stuck in my boxers and tee in a metal sarcophagus with nothing but a fluffy sheet beneath me.

I'd wondered when tracking down Suloyak if sealing me up in a tomb would limit my powers as it did his. Now might be the time to test that theory out, but I would be crazy not to admit I was scared to do it. Rafferty had placed an inhibitor on my brain. Too many gate trips would burst my heart. I never got to ask him if it was the same for one really long travel. I had no idea how close we were to our apartment, no idea how long I was out and—

I froze when I heard the lull of voices on the other side. The gruff bass of men, the light treble of femininity. I couldn't make out the words, but the tone was crisp and unfeeling. Like Niko when he rattled off the facts and figures of the monster of the week. Only this time I was pretty sure I was the monster. And if they had Cassie. If they knew what she was, then she was in as much trouble as I was. I couldn't travel to the apartment, even if it didn't kill me, I would be leaving her here. And granted she was more capable than I was, maybe she'd save my ass again. That would be lovely. Or maybe they didn't take her. Maybe they were after me. Was this the Kin stepping up their game? No, the Kin never used humans before. They liked to battle face to face. I once saw a pack turn on their Alpha because he used a gun on me, I could only imagine what a pack would do if they saw their head mutt using a tranquilizer gun to subdue their enemy.

Then I heard a scream from another room, it was tinny and distant as if down a hall, or that could have just been because I was in a metal coffin. But I heard a scream. Her scream. Not that I'd ever heard Cassie scream in rage, pleasure sure, but this sound was a whole other animal and I still knew it was her. I could feel her. It sent a shiver through my body and I had the damper of several inches of iron. But if I could hear her... "Cassie!" I shouted at the top of my lungs and damn that shit echoed. But I called again, regardless, pounding against the tomb. "Cassie!"

My voice didn't reach her, or rather she was too busy to notice because the gunfire started up next. I felt a few bullets ricochet off whatever I was encased in, which meant I was above ground and at least at knee height. Either that or these assholes were really bad shots. But guns? None of my long list of enemies used guns, or humans for that matter. Except the Vigil and we had a tenuous truce going on since I helped them kill the Auphe.

Except the Auphe weren't dead, not entirely. "Oh, fuck!" I kicked at the coffin and braced my back against the thin layer of cushion beneath me. The truce was over. I should have known. They were certain the Auphe were dead and they no longer needed me for jack. I was expendable; and unnecessary danger. And Cassie walked into the crossfire without even realizing. I'd just served her up on a silver platter. I pressed my toes to the bottom, palms to the top and used the tiny bit of leverage I had to try and pry this thing open. If I could see what was going on. See the layout of the room, I could travel out and help her, but if I tried blindly I might die for nothing. Get caught between walls or between the coffin and the fresh, bullet-laden, air above it. I didn't know how thick this sarcophagus was.

The gun reports lessened and I still heard voices. Not shouting, but radioing in position and status. I couldn't hear Cassie, not for the minute I held my breath. Then a shrill whimper and a pained cry. Like an animal wounded, scared, trapped. It was a horrible sound and without heeding the consequences I traveled. Or attempted to. As soon as I felt the freeing sensation of flying, agony brought me to a blazing halt. I assumed it was my heart at first; the adrenaline causing arrest or some shit, but when I finally opened my eyes I could see sparks.

Physical electric sparks dancing like contained lightening across the curve of my tomb. That wasn't from the gate. I touched the interior and it shocked me with residuals. That answered that question; there _was_ a tomb that could contain the power of the Auphe. Or, at least, the power of a half Auphe. "Cassie!"

No answer. Great, I was trapped in an electrified coffin in my boxers, with even my Hail Mary taken out of play and I was pretty sure I'd gotten my girlfriend killed. Big brother if there was ever a time I needed you most...

I realized after a moment that everything was silent. No radios, no rumbling bass diagnostics, no shrill treble of someone panicking. Not even the slap of a magazine into place. Had the electric current deafened me? "Cas—"

A forceful bang rocked my coffin, slamming my shoulder to one side. Then another. I anchored myself in the center as best I could. If they let me out, I'd fucking take them to a Tumulus vacation spot, heart failure or no. Another charging-Buffalo crash hit accompanied by the high pitched screech of metal to metal. I watched that side of the tomb, fearing the worst and hoping for the best. A pinprick of light pierced the darkness of the coffin, but was immediately extinguished by the massive black claw renting the metal.

I let off a gasp I wasn't proud of and scooted as far to the other side as possible. I knew those claws. Knew them too well. Black as tar, sharper than any blade in Nik's arsenal, serrated and deadly. The claws of an Auphe. They hooked around the hinge near my shoulder and wrenched. The tomb shuddered, but didn't fall.

The Vigil had their fingers in everything. They were human, but humans were resourceful, progressive and sometimes insanely reckless. I didn't know what they were hiding in their non-existent bases. What if they had government funding? They'd gotten Niko and me a suitcase nuke to take out the Auphe within weeks. I wouldn't put it past them to have cryogenically frozen Auphe in some lab somewhere and I wouldn't put it past my luck that one of those dicks unthawed.

Another violent haul from the creature outside and the hinge gave way. Light spilled in, but I wasn't sure I wanted to see my nightmares come to life. It started pounding at the other hinge and I couldn't stop myself from peering out. I couldn't see whatever was attempting to get at me, but I could see the chaos and death it left behind.

It was like the set of a sci-fi horror movie. A vile experiment that usurped the creators. Men and women in white coats littered the floor in pieces and sometimes as bloodied wholes. Soldiers in uniform were scatter among their useless guns. The walls and floor obviously used to be white, like a sterile room, but had been painted with the fluids and blood of human bodies eviscerated. I leaned away from the opening, glanced down at the creatures' progress, and realized if this wasn't another tidbit of info Cassie forgot to tell me I was dead. The second hinge clanked to the floor, embossing the tomb with more light. Then those horrid claws curved up, gripping the top edge of the coffin at both openings. There was a humanoid sound of struggle and with a raucous bang and a blinding light the tomb was open.

I hoisted myself out the other side before the creature could peer over the edge. I dropped to the floor, crouching behind the lid and base of the tomb, which was anchored on some sort of bolted table. It looked more like a submarine missile than a coffin, but now it was an empty shell and I feared facing what opened it. I reached for the closest weapon, which happened to be a sort of sub-machine gun, and checked the mag. Locked and loaded, I swung around to face the Auphe that would still kill me with or without weapons. I had this feeling though; after seeing Cassie in the alley I knew something I'd never thought possible.

I wasn't the only half Auphe in this world.

It wasn't a concept that I ever thought would instill anything but fear in me. But she saved me when I was trying to save her. When I was surrounded by the peris out for blood, she landed like a winged ninja and (after unsuccessfully trying to reason with them) created the most beautiful gate I'd ever seen. Even the Auphe had never produced one like hers. It was a ring around us, protecting herself and me in the middle and rocketing outward like a razor-wire to annihilate all of them. And I shut it. Like a child who slams the closet door just so he doesn't have to see what's inside, I closed her gate so abruptly her mind must have been caught between. She dropped unconscious right into my arms and all I could do was shoot at the remaining peri until he ran.

But it didn't make any sense. Why didn't she tell me? Me of all beings in the world? I would accept her in a heartbeat, because she was like me. And she was devastatingly hurt.

I lowered my pilfered gun when I came around the side of the container. She was on the ground, the last patch of white becoming soaked with her blood. She shivered violently, wings on her back twitching in their mangled state. Tissue shown through the gray-barred white feathers where bullets tore. I'd wondered just how corporal a peris' wings were since they seemed to disappear from existence at the peris' will, but now I knew. I knew they could be caressed and I knew they could bleed. I knew hers faded with an odd, distorted gray light that reminded me of traveling. I didn't have to wonder why that was any longer.

"Cas," I whispered, kneeling cautiously at her side. She still had those nightmareish black talons extended from her fingertips, but they were bleeding. Blood-encrusted as well, but I was more concerned with the fresh red seeping from her fleshy fingers as well as the one pinkie claw that had obviously snapped off in her endeavor to get me out. She had a nasty gash on her upper arm, considering the bruising around it I was sure that was from trying to plow down the coffin first. She shifted from her side onto her back. Deep mahogany eyes gazed up at me, no longer the crimson red she showed me in the alley. Letting out the Auphe to protect me. "Can you stand?"

I knew better than to stay here. Where ever we were, whatever faculty this was, they would have a plan B. Or plan C through G, probably. Cassie's claws retracted and by her cringe it wasn't pleasant. "I'm sorry."

"Now's not the time, Cassie." I offered her my hand, despite my inner child screaming that the claws could come back. She took it, her hand slick to mine, but without daggers. When I pulled her up to my chest, she clung to me, still kneeling.

"I knew someone would hurt you if they knew," she whispered, body still trembling. "I was scared. I'm sorry, I didn't tell you."

"I'll determine if I forgive you when you tell me everything," I told her. I grabbed her with one hand to her cheek, trying not to notice she was in nothing but her underwear and a scrub-like smock that barely covered her. The armholes were wide enough to give a glimpse of the curve of her breast and a hem just grazed her mid-thigh. Trying not to notice how many bullets had penetrated through her defensive wings and got to flesh and bone was even more difficult. "And that will be when we get the hell out of here. Understood."

Cassie continued to shake from either blood loss, pain, adrenaline, or all of the above, but she nodded. I nodded with her. "Good, can you gate us out of here?"

"It would hurt you," she said it almost as if pleading. I smirked, she knew me better than I thought.

"Cassie, if it gets us out of here, I can handle the migraine and heart palpitations. Besides I don't even know if it would hurt me if I'm not creating it."

"I don't want to test that, even if I could," Cassie argued. She took my hand and guided it to her nape. My fingertips danced over something hard and cold compared to her pale skin. Vaguely triangular and scabbed over where three millimeter thick prongs clamped down into her skin. She gripped at my arms as I eased her forehead to my shoulder, pushing her matted hair away from her neck to get a better look. "They did something to me." I saw that. I also saw that they didn't get to finish. There were two of those strange metal clamps. Only the first one blinked as if active, the second just looked like an inert piece of scrap metal, and angry red tears shown where the third had started being put in.

Cassie had probably woken mid-operation, fought them, freed herself and then came for me. There was only one black missile coffin in this room. One medical cart, one gurney, one set of restraints on said gurney. Clearly, this was my home away from home, not hers. I touched my finger to one of the prongs and needled it between skin and the metal. Cassie's fingers dug into my arms and she jerked in pain, the jolt going all the way to her legs. I pulled back and lifted her head to look her in the eye. "Too deep."

"Rip it out," she demanded. Her teeth were already clenched as if bracing herself for the action I hadn't even decided I could let alone would do.

"It's in your spinal column," I argued. I knew peris, like wolves and hundreds of other preternatural bastards, could heal quickly, but I somehow doubted she would be kicking down doors and ripping out innards if I severed her fucking spine. She reached for the module, ready to rip it out herself. I smacked her hand away. "You're not taking it out like that either!" And they called me reckless.

She huffed out a sigh. "I can't gate. If I can't gate, I can't get us out of here." She offered me a half smile, not coy or even confident. "We'll have to get out of here the old fashion way." She used my shoulders to get to her feet, which where shaky to say the least. I nearly laughed when she picked up another nearby firearm and slung the shoulder strap around her neck. A warrior to the end and a girl after my own heart. "We need clothes."

I gave her a coy shrug. "What you're wearing looks fine."

She shot me a glare, but a little smirk showed through. Then she dropped to one knee and not of her own volition. "Cas, damn it." I turned and scanned the room. We needed to staunch the blood or cover her wounds or something. If this was a medical lab then where were –ah! I attacked the metal cart in one corner of the room, emptying the contents to the floor. I doubted more noise would screw us over any more than the gun fight did. "How many times were you hit?"

"Just three," she replied. I gaped at her. _Just_ three. "I can take it. I've just lost a lot of blood and the constant electricity run through me isn't helping."

I knelt beside her with an armful of gauze and didn't ask as I tore the wrap tie loose from her shirt. It wasn't like I'd never seen her naked before and the angry bullet holes in her sternum, abdomen, and thigh took a bit of the sex-vibe away. They were 9mm rounds from the submachine guns and considering the minimal delay between shots she was either fucking lucky or just that good. "It'll heal, Cal."

I ignored her and hastily wrapped the gauze around her waist to stop the abdomen shot from bleeding out. It was through and through and if she'd been human I was pretty certain she'd be missing a kidney. She watched me as I tore the bandage with my teeth and went at her thigh with the same clumsy vigor. That bullet remained, but we'd have to dig it out later. I raised my eyebrows at her silence. "You want to start talking?"

"I don't know where to start."

"You're not peri. Start there."

"I'm half peri," she explained, then let off a little cry when I tightened the gauze around her leg. She didn't stop me though and didn't stop talking. "The Auphe abducted my mother and hundreds of other peri females to create a tool to use against them. Many died just from the transition to Tumulus and more when they couldn't bare children for the Auphe. I wasn't the only hatchling to survive birth, there were a sparse few considering the Auphe's efforts, but I was the only one that survived Tumulus. I grew up there for two hundred years, then they unleashed me to kill the peris...it was all I knew. Cal, I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I wanted to."

"I don't like secrets," I grumbled. The bullet in her sternum had no exit wound either. It was still in her and I hoped that wasn't as bad for a peri as it was for a human. There were a lot of vulnerable organs around there. "We don't keep secrets. It leads to bad things."

"Like this," Cassie whispered. She stopped my hand when I taped the last edge of gauze to her chest and gripped my fingers to her warm skin. "Ishiah feared this. He told me the Vigil might come for me. That's where we are, yes?"

"I think so. They're human, so, I assume this is Vigil territory." I shook my head to clear it and pushed off from the tile floor. She was right she couldn't go running around in her underwear like some horror film victim as nice as the fan service might be. Honestly, it was easier to out run a bullet when it had to eat through fabric before it met flesh. "We need clothes."

"Cal, you know why they took us, right?"

"I had a truce with them," I snapped, deflecting rage not meant for her and not caring. I crouched over the nearest scientist that wasn't in parts and stripped her of her coat and jeans. Jeans, huh, pretty lax dress code the Vigil had. I tossed the clothes toward Castiella and began relieving a soldier of his cargoes and remaining weapons. "We killed the Auphe –they helped– but we did it and they were thankful for it. They left me alone."

"Because they thought you were the last. You can't continue a race with just one. I shouldn't have gone to you. I knew what others would think if they found out I was half Auphe. If I slept with you, but..." I looked back at her. She'd shrugged on the pants and forgone the coat, instead she gingerly pulled on a soldier's tank. Her wings slipping out the arm holes. I realized then, she probably couldn't make them disappear, not with them so injured.

"But you can't have kids." That better not have been a lie. She better not have lied about that. If she did, god damn it, I did not want to kill her, but I would for that.

"No, I can't. Peris and Auphe hormones negate each other inside me. Both are born with as many eggs as they will have in their lifetime and I was born with none, but who would believe me?" I gave her a stern look. "Other than you?"

"Don't piss me off right now."

"Caliban," she started, then lost her words and ducked her head in either pain or shame. She never meant for this to happen, I wasn't stupid enough to think that. She dove right in to save me without a thought to her own safety. She protected me and accepted me. Cassie didn't want this. She knew it might come to this, but she'd probably thought we could handle it. And we could.

"We're getting out of here. And you're going to tell me the whole story. No lies, no secrets, nothing left out."

Cassie nodded and got to her feet, still trembling, but her hands were steady on the gun.

Then the alarm went off. A horrible burst of sound that warned of the end coming. Our end or theirs, I wasn't sure. I snatched up another sub-machine gun and managed to find some boots that weren't filled with blood. Cassie didn't bother, but she kind of pre-dated shoes so I didn't question it.

She armed herself to the teeth as well with whatever ammo was left after the fire fight. We looked at each other as we faced the double doors out of the room. They were already warped from Castiella getting in by force and I could see, out of the corner of my eye and through the rippled seam, a red light revolving outside in the hallway. I knew the Calvary would be at our doorstep soon. Cassie let off one more shudder, then grabbed my shirt-front and pulled me to her mouth. The kiss was brief and forceful, but expressed everything I was feeling right then. Rolling passion, fear that this was over, my life was over. I wished so much to be able to travel back to my bed, take her with me, and not come out again save for food and quality time with Niko and Robin.

"Just so you know," Cassie spoke before I could. "I never lied to you."

I frowned, but supposed that was right. _She_ never said she was full peri, we just assumed. "Just so you know. I don't regret any of it." Cassie smiled that sultry cute smile that reeled me in the first time we met. Well, I assumed it was the first time we met. "You were in Tumulus when Robin thought you were dead, weren't you?"

She kicked open the doors as if they were swinging freely and not still half under computer lock down. "Little lamb, now's not the time."

I ran after her, not wanting her out of my sight. Alone I'd never get out of this alive, I doubted she would either as wounded as she was, but together we had a chance. And if I knew my brother and Robin, our own Calvary wasn't far behind.

The hall was vacant, but still reminiscent of an underground conspiracy theory-type laboratory. Metal bars blocked horizontally over some of the doors for reinforcement, sliding into the walls and sealed shut. The corridor was lined with doors, some barred some the same as the one we came from. Glancing back at the one just behind us that sparked on its hinges, I saw a glossy eyed head peering out of the door, blood puddling out from the light of the room. I was pretty sure they would have wished they'd used the barred ones for us; at least they would have if their brains still functioned to have hopes and wishes and hindsight. "Your room?"

Cassie didn't say anything, but touched my arm to urge me down the hall. They were keeping something else in here. Something just as dangerous as Cassie and I. I shuddered to think they really could have one of my half cousins frozen on a slab a few doors down. Behind one of these windowless electronic doors.

I could hear some creature wailing in tandem with the alarm, like a wolf howling at a dog whistle. It wasn't a wolf though, I'd never heard that animalistic cry before. It sounded as if a lion and a bull were screaming in harmony. Smelled like it too. I noticed that then; in my cell had hadn't smelt anything. Nothing out of the ordinary among blood washed floors. Metal, iron, human stink, but here. I could smell...good lord, everything horrible under the Earth sun. The woods, the desert, the funk of an alley hobo's cardboard-box home. I crept closer to the door the roaring was coming from. Heavy steel like the set Cassie kicked out, no window to see in, but this one had bars two inches in diameter anchored across the frame.

Cassie grabbed the front of my shirt again and this time shoved my back to the space between this door and the next before I could reach for the keypad. She gave me a chiding look, finally looking older than me. Actually she looked a little like Nik when he was reaming me out for a poor decision. "Humans and their curiosities."

My mouth parted, affronted. "Hey I'm—"

"More human than you think. If you're curious that's the mating cry of a Nian. Chinese origins. A beast god that devastated villages and feasted on villagers before being tricked by an old man. That's how most of those fables go, either an old man or a simple girl, either way the beast loses. Regardless, the alarm sounds like its mate so if you want to go in there by all means, but if the lion head doesn't rip you apart the bull dick will."

"Noted," I replied. A little more colorful than Niko's usual lectures, not as gratuitous as Robin's, but I kinda liked it that way.

The door didn't take any heed to my noted decision though and just like that every door straight down the hall slid open with a steamy, metallic clank. I jolted from the door at my back and Cassie yanked me further into the hall. The bars went next, receding into the wall with the speed of a catapult in reverse. At each end of the hall a door closed, the way out blocked by a door probably like the ones submarines use with they're sealing off a water logged corridor. Good, fucking, lord were we in a sub?

Cassie and I back-peddled several yards and creatures charged out like the last school bell of the day rang and it was summer vacation.

My main concern was the giant animal that crashed through the door I'd been listening against. The thing was massive; thick matted brown fur covered it with a heavy mane around its neck giving way to an awful mug that only a mother could love. Head of a mutated lion, body of a steroid-fed bull; Cassie wasn't lying and Excalibur was out and wagging about like a dead squid with just as many tentacles.

"Oh, that is not good," I hissed out, raising the sub-machine gun. The Nian drop kicked a revenant that tried to skitter out of the cell a few down, then mauled another monster that I didn't even know the name of with its spear-like horns curving from its forehead. Black blood coated the walls. I skipped back another step and was nearly floored by an escaping werewolf. "What's with the fucking menagerie?"

"What do you think?" Cassie pressed us back into the wall again. Goddamn the Vigil, those lying bastards. They pretended they were so innocent and vulnerable, that they just observed and never tangled with the beasts they watched. Bullshit. I saw the beasts they watched, every breed, every race, like a singular Noah's Ark running in panic up and down the corridor. The humans were containing them, controlling them, and figuring out the weaknesses of every creature that went bump in the night. Cassie and I were just another experiment, and effectively, a failed one…again.

The Nian pounded its horns and skull against the enforced metal door at the end of the hall. Those had bars across them too, layers of them. Down the other side, I saw the same scene with different monsters. They'd sealed us in. Why? In hopes that we'd kill each other?

"Cal," Cassie started, bringing my focus on her heart-shaped face. I tried not to see the strange primal cross between a frog and chimp that was taking a snack break in Cassie's old room.

Castiella's full lips parted, then her eyes went wide. That caught my attention. She grabbed a handful of my shirt and the strap of one gun that slung over my chest and hauled me into the nearest cell before I could glance over my shoulder to see what nightmare was bearing down on us now. I stumbled into the room, raising the submachine gun at the crumpled figure in the corner. Then I realized it was just a shelf with a lab coat draped over it. Okay so maybe I was still a little jumpy, but I had damned good reason. The room was obviously a lab, no beasties holed up in here. All shelves and rolling carts, vile looking devices that, in any other 'hospital' type scenario, would have been aiding. Another sterile room of white.

"Caliban, help me!" Cassie snapped. She was throwing all her strength into getting the mechanical door shut. Blood had seeped through the bandage on her leg by now, a path dyed the stolen jeans to her knee cap. I slung the gun around to my back with the other one and looked the thing over.

"Cassie, this thing isn't going to close by force. It slides into the wall with electronic gears."

"We have to get it closed, now!"

"Cassie, what ever was coming would have gotten to us by now." The Nian stampeded by the door, roaring and tossing half a goblin off its rack. Poor thing never stood a chance. But the Nian didn't stop, heading for the barricade at the other end.

"You don't smell that?"

I wrinkled my nose. I smelled a lot, a zoo, and it wasn't pleasant. Cassie ignored me and slammed the clip of one of the submachine guns into the wall like a sledgehammer. The plaster –this cell wasn't a metal box like the others– fell away to reveal bits of panels and wires controlling the door. I joined her, still not sure what she was getting at, but figuring she'd been saving my ass so far and I shouldn't doubt her now. We cleared away a good sized panel and I stared at the matrix of wires, bolts, and gears. "Now what?"

Cassie scanned it as well, swallowing hard. "I have no idea. But if we don't get this door closed we'll be incinerated in the next five minutes." I stared at her, brow raised. "There's gas being pumped into this corridor, it's a war tactic. Pump gas in and light a fire. We're trapped in here, Cal. I'm not fireproof, are you?"

I didn't have an answer to that. Well, I did, but I certainly didn't like it. Cassie ran her fingers over the wires, debating for only a moment before she started tearing all of them indiscriminately. I grabbed the edge of the door and pulled, kept pulling, waiting for something to give way. Cassie's claws came back out as she slashed into the grid, cutting through gear and panel as easily as the wires. And the door gave, I couldn't believe it, but the door gave out and my hand almost went with it.

I pulled it back, shaking my clipped fingers. Castiella rushed to my side taking my hand and inspecting it as if to make sure all my digits were still there. "I'm good." She nodded and sunk the claws of one hand into the door to yank it into place, effectively sealing us in the room. "So what happens now?"

She stared at the door. "Get out of here."

"What?" I laughed. "All right, let me just stroll out the imaginary back door and I'll meet you at Goodfellow's tomorrow?"

"You can still gate."

"Not without an aneurysm."

The alarm was joined by a filtered voice; female, mechanical and counting down like a space ship about to self destruct. Both of us stared at the door now, waiting to see if we could survive this. If the fire didn't get in we wouldn't die, but plenty of the gas was in the room with us. I could smell the pharmaceutical charm of it now. One spark and it would ignite.

The countdown ended at a silent zero and Cassie and I dropped to the ground at the force of the explosion. The floor shook, the walls shook, and I grabbed for her hand without thinking. She squeezed it back and I helped her scoot away from heat-conducting door. It held up though, even as the scent of cooked meat started to overpower the sound of animals, beasts, and monsters dying. Not many monsters could survive incineration. Decapitation and incineration. I still hold true to my thought that Niko and I needed to start carting around a flamethrower. There was still one under my bed from the Sawney experience, but I really wanted a more portable one.

We retreated to the exterior wall, dropping our backs to it and taking in calming breaths. Well, bravo to us for surviving that, but, even if not from experience, I knew it wasn't over. The sprinklers came on. I squinted in the onslaught of water and blew a few droplets out of my face. Cassie laughed, actually laughed. She pushed wet layers of hair out of her face and leaned her head to my shoulder.

"Oh, damn, do I need a cigarette."

"Yeah, I haven't seen you smoking lately."

She shrugged as the water continued to pelt down. Sluicing the fire outside our door and all the charred bodies left behind. I could smell the cooked meat even with the door closed and it reminded me I was kinda hungry. And glancing down at her water logged tank I realized I was also a little adrenaline-driven horny. "Meh, finished the pack." I must have given her an odd look, because she smiled. "Had a craving, staved it, but don't worry you're more than a craving."

"Really?" I nudged her shoulder lightly. "You wanna have sex?"

Cassie laughed again, that musical sound that somehow managed to make me forget we were in the middle of a fight for righteous survival. "I know the wet tee shirt thing is a turn on for guys and all, but I think we have other things to worry about." The sprinklers sputtered out as she trailed off and were instantly replaced by a hissing sound. "Like that..."

A white mist started creeping out of the vents on the ceiling. "And 'that' can't be good."

"The door," she ordered and sprung to her feet. I followed, then promptly crashed to the fluctuating ground. The residual water splashed against my cheek, but I was a bit more concerned with the gas that was filling my lung as well as the room. I tried to call Cassie's name, tried to reach for her, but the room was spinning. I thought I heard gun reports muffled through the metal door; felling the last of the hearty demons they kept in their hold. My vision blurred at every breath I tried to take in.

I felt her hands on me, touching my chest, pulling a gun from poking into my back and tossing it aside. She called my name, then coughed and her hair fell across my throat. I could smell it; that scent of blood and wood smoke. The slightest hint of that strange flower. She touched my face. Her lips to my jaw. I thought I heard her whispering to me over the slam of machinery to unforgiving metal. They would get in; I knew they would. This was their territory and there was a reason the Auphe started fading when the humans completed their quest for fire. I would have cursed if I had any breath left to give it sound.

"Get out," her voice filled my mind as crisp as the smell of her blood mixed with water, mixed with the fumes of whatever drug that pumped into my lungs. "Go home. He's waiting for you."

No, I wasn't going to leave her. I couldn't. I couldn't travel, it would kill me and I'd kill her with abandonment. But my body disagreed. Her words triggered a memory long since forgotten and instinct acted on it. Get out, get out now. Run, run, hide to fight another day, to survive. And when I took in another breath it was on fire –not in the literal sense, though it certainly felt as painful. I gagged, coughed and took in another despite the agony.

It radiated in my brain, felt like it was bleeding from my ears. The weight was gone from my chest, but that wasn't comforting. Cassie had been that weight; that comfort that I wasn't alone. I was alone now. When I managed to get my eyes opened, swimming with sharp stings and water as they were, I saw my ceiling. _My_ ceiling. Eggshell paint, smoother than any of the other cracked and stained ceilings that I'd ever slept under. The carpet was cool under my back, my open closet with its content spilling out of it brushed my knuckles when I coughed again. My head felt like it was exploding, my heart only a beat behind.

I groaned and rolled onto my knees. I was home. I traveled back the apartment. I left Castiella. I left her behind, I abandoned her in a place of darkness and I didn't have a clue where it was. I couldn't even travel back there. I pounded a fist to the carpet, but that didn't cease any of the pain. Wet, dark hair fell over my forehead, smelling nothing like her. "God Dammit!"

I pushed my knees beneath me, braced my hands to the carpet, and passed out. Yeah, I passed out. Some hero I was. Granted, I never for the life of me –my life– thought I was the hero. The slightly homicidal, cynical sidekick, sure, but my brother was the hero and he was currently out of the office. As was I at that moment. I would have cursed again if consciousness wasn't a necessity to do that. Sorry, Cassie, your black knight in Auphe armor was out like a cellar light please leave a message at the...


	13. Chapter 13 Cal

**Chapter Thirteen**

**CAL**

Cold. I was freezing cold. Not surprising since I'd just taken a frigid shower with all my clothes on just a few minutes ago, or maybe longer, I had no idea. And they weren't really my clothes, but I had been wearing them all the same. 'Had been' being the operative words there. Now I was naked. I didn't remember that. One would remember stripping out of all their clothes, especially if they hadn't had a lick of alcohol and were currently unconscious. Not semi-conscious, not drugged –well, maybe I was drugged, who the fuck knew?

I was cold and naked. And remember that saying there's no place like home? It was true for the most part and I wasn't there. I was cold, naked, and lying flat on my back against a slab of chilling stone. Home. I cringed at the thought. I was home, just not the one I wanted to reside in. I could see the vast ebbs and flows of a desolate, dark and evil landscape in brief flickers of memory and pieces of the imagined weaved in the negative spaces. Gray, cold, hard stone all around. My home for two years lost. Lost like the air in my lungs when a fist hit my stomach.

I scrambled away, heart starting to thunder in my chest when I saw the ripple of distorted gray splitting the air feet above my head. A gate; someone was gating. That sensation tickled at the back of my brain, unnatural to the world, but absolutely natural for me. Inside, nostalgia blossomed, longing to leap through that swirling light like it was a wave pool on a hot summer day and I was a gleeful ten year old.

"Go!" It was a desperate cry followed by a vice grip on my upper arm. I yanked back. They wanted to take me. Always after me. Their fucking golden boy. The only successful experiment. But I was already stranded in Tumulus and I _wasn't_ the only successful experiment. I wasn't even the first. I knew the first, I'd touched the first, ran my fingers through her hair and felt her warmth. "You don't belong here! Go home!"

Delicate hands wrapped around by bicep, warm in the chill of the electrified air. I stared through sweat-dampened hair, holding my arm close to my chest to prevent losing any distance between me and the widening tear in reality. I'd just been attacked by overgrown parakeets, kidnapped by gun-toting humans, locked in a submarine coffin in what might have been a bigger submarine, almost incinerated, drenched by emergency sprinklers, and gassed into traveling to drop unconscious onto my bedroom carpet. But regardless to what I'd been through the body holding onto me had been through hell and worse.

Skin that used to be porcelain pale was smudged with so much stone dust and dried blood that it looked as if she'd been rolling in it for days. Her clothes were sparse and in shreds and every inch of her was covered with angry red slashes and bruises of every color under the sun. It brought vivid spectrum to an otherwise gray space. Except her eyes were blood red, just as every nightmare in this realm. They were wide, fixed on me, just as desperate as her voice. "Please. Someone's waiting for you, right? Come on, little lamb, go! Quickly! Someone's waiting for you. Whose waiting for you?"

Holy shit. That was the thought in my head. I wasn't stupid. This wasn't a dream. No matter how many times it started out as something else. As me embracing Cassie, instead of wrenching away from her, scratching and biting in effort to run. It didn't matter if it started mundane or erotic, it always ended here. With her pleading and the Auphe tearing her apart. Only they didn't tear her apart, she survived. She tried to save me and she survived to see me safe. Because this wasn't a dream. It was a memory. A long lost one, that had been stuck deep in the recessed of my mind. I just hoped it didn't bring back more.

"Little lamb, they're coming."

"Let them," I answered. Screw this. It might be a memory, but I could change the instant replay. I grabbed Cassie by her nape and captured her mouth. I could taste blood, but that just served to get me going. "I'm coming for you. I promise."

I woke up then, before I could turn that haunting memory into something far more recreational, either in bloodsport with the Auphe or featuring other fluids with Cassie. I woke up because I was choking on my own drool. Classy, I know. I coughed and flopped onto my side. I wasn't wet anymore; apparently I'd been out long enough to air dry. I was alive, though. Which meant I had something to do. I coughed again and grimaced when a light splatter of blood and saliva hit the back of my hand. Rafferty had done good, fixed up the crazy so it couldn't make me crazier.

One gate (and one attempted gate) and I was back to nose bleeds, migraines that knocked me out, and an unsteady heart. What had he called it? Sera, seri, serotonin syndrome. Too much serotonin apparently makes a half Auphe a dull boy. And by dull I meant my senses; my personality may be a lot of things, but dull was not one of them. Thank you healer for not fucking with my recreational serotonin. The gate serotonin must be a super high, because sex with Cassie (and Delilah for that matter) could get pretty intense.

I got to my knees again, wiped the dried blood clotted around my nostrils –most of it had gone down the back of my throat, which made me feel a little better since I was probably choking on that and not my drool.

"Nik?" I called it loud enough that he would have heard me from anywhere in the apartment, regardless to my door being closed. I waited five seconds and shit, he wasn't here. Which meant he was out traversing the city in search of me, probably without food or sleep. Hopefully, Goodfellow at least got some nutrients in him, because I was probably going to need my brother on par to infiltrate the Vigil's animal testing lab. I'd lost my cell phone, but we had burn phones in case we lost ours (in case I lost mine). Each one was set up with a few hours of pre-paid time, patched up with all the numbers we might need. Of course that was basically, Niko, me, Promise, Robin, and Rafferty. They were pre-Ishiah, so his wasn't on there –not that I wanted to talk to that lying sack of feathers. And Rafferty was moot since he was frolicking through the forests with his literal wolf cousin. I really only wanted to call Goodfellow anyway, first at least. I wanted to know where he was, go there, and punch him in the face. Then I'd call Nik, assure him I was alive and ready to kick some Vigil ass.

I got to my feet. It took me a while; drugs and second gate didn't mix well. I got my back-up Desert Eagle and Glock and stuffed a throw away .38 into an ankle holster with two blades all hidden in my boot. Lined my last jacket with knives and tucked my matte black serrated knife into a hip holster. I wasn't lying in the dream/memory. I was coming for her. I was going to get Cassie back, I was going to shake her for evading key points of information that would have saved us all this trouble, and then I was going to do to her exactly what I had intended to do in the dream.

I found one of the burn phones stuffed in the space between the phone book and a scattering of miscellaneous pens in one of our kitchen drawers. There was also one hanging in a plastic bag in the toilet tank, one hidden in a box of frosted shredded wheat (which was too tofu for me and not wheat grass enough for Nik), one in each of our dressers. I think we had about eight of them, but who was counting other than my anal-retentive brother. I punched my thumb down on the number three, because despite how he might feel Robin was not going to be number one on the burn phones, and waited for it to connect.

And it did after the third ring. "This is the magnificent Robin Goodfellow, I apologize if you are calling to experience the glory of myself as it would probably relieve you of depravity and leave you in ecstasy for as long as you live, but I regret to inform you that I am now a puck of monogamy—"

"Shut the fuck up, Loman." As much as it might have sounded like his answering machine, and sadly it did sound similar, I knew it wasn't. Just as I knew the burn phones came up unlisted, so Robin thought he was talking to a complete stranger, which in his mind was undoubtedly a fan girl (or boy).

"Caliban," it came out as both a question and a breath of relief. "Where are you?"

"Where are you?" I countered, putting emphasis on the pronoun so he knew I wasn't just parroting. He hesitated as I heard voices in the background. The sound of my brother ready to gut Robin if he didn't hand over the phone. And the puck did, he wasn't stupid. Niko intimidated us all, including the self-proclaimed god of the sword.

"Cal!" Niko's voice took over the line. Strained and ragged from a sleepless night, at least I hoped it was just one. I still had no idea how long I was stuck in that coffin and I had no clue how long I was passed out on my bedroom floor. Honestly I was surprised he was stationary in one place even if it was Goodfellow's apartment.

"You at Robin's?"

"Yes. We'll come to you; where are you?"

"No," I answered and snapped the phone shut. Niko wouldn't take offense; living with me, raising me, he knew some things just wouldn't change. My attitude when I was ticked off what one of those things. Heh, well, my attitude in general, really. I ignored the cell as it started buzzing in my pocket. I knew where they were, that was all that mattered.

I splashed some hot water on my face and took a leak before I left the apartment. Didn't want to piss myself if I got electrocuted again. Unfortunately, the walk to Robin's apartment, even via subway, took fifteen minutes, which left plenty of time for my mind to wander. If one knew me well enough, they knew I wasn't fond of thinking things through. I blamed it on the Auphe part of me; slash first contemplate or disregard the consequences later.

Promise had lied to us, omitted the truth, just like Castiella had. Promise didn't tell us that her daughter was a psychotic, homicidal, greed-driven monster. Of course, she hadn't entirely known herself. Or she had and just didn't want to admit or believe it. She's lied and that had nearly gotten us killed. In the recesses of Niko's memory it _had_ gotten me killed. In pieces and bloody on our apartment rug; he'd never erase that memory no matter how many times I tugged on his braid or called him Cyrano to assure him. Cherish had gotten me killed with a chupacabra mind trick and Niko had killed her for that and several other reasons that were probably just excuses for his noble code to live by. And it took him a half a year, before he even spoke to Promise again. I still distrusted her on some level –no one lived as long as she did without a few more skeletons hidden in the closet, same as Robin– but it wasn't enough to hinder my brother's happiness.

And Cassie did the same. She hid her lineage from me. Me! The one monster in the world that would understand what she was. She didn't tell me and it nearly killed me, or at least I assume that was the Vigil's endgame. Death or servitude and for me it was death before servitude. But all I could think about was how I was going to get her back. Maybe it was because Niko wasn't in danger through this. The Vigil wouldn't touch him and the peris wouldn't hurt him if they could help it, the virtuous bastards. Maybe it was because I'd slept with her, but no...nah, I slept with Delilah and if she were the one stuck in the Vigil I'd leave her ass there to be probed and hot body to be dissected.

Cassie was different and that didn't settle well. Made my stomach rock with the motion of the subway cab, but I decided to believe it was just the drugs leaving my system. She knew me. Yeah, she'd hid who she was, but she never denied her skeletons, never denied the danger I might be in. She hid who she was to preserve herself. Rumors flew in this part of town and learning another half Auphe was in town was a juicy piece of gossip for those that feared us, hated us, or wanted our power. She hid behind the mask to save herself and then she ripped it off to save me. She didn't do it with the Kin because she could handle them as a peri, but her speed when she took me down in the park and stopped Niko from slicing her carotid artery and when she took out three wolves before I could even sit up. That was Auphe speed. They were the first monsters of this world and that feral grace was in our blood.

Cassie revealed herself to spare me and that meant something. Like Niko and his constant martyrdom. Because when I thought of her all I saw was that smile, that smile and a stone-dust smudged round face calling out for me to free myself. She was there and she stayed there long after I was shivering in Niko's arms. She'd saved me four times so far, put me before her own survival four goddamn times from when I was sixteen to now and I knew if she had been standing at Nik's side all these years we wouldn't have had half as many close calls as we did. Maybe she could have stopped Darkling, maybe she could have gated Suloyak the second she saw him instead of as a last ditch effort with a bullet in her stomach like I had.

Those thoughts were pointless, but I had them, because I wanted her to be there for the next time. Because I wanted to see what she would do to the next monster on the block. Because I wanted her in my bed after we took care of that next monster. And that drive brought me to Robin's apartment door, which –like everything else in his life– was overly extravagant. Niko opened the door, but I breezed by him with a brief tug to his blond braid and bee lined it to the curly-haired prick and I punched him.

I think Robin expected it, because I didn't hold back and he only flailed into the kitchen island. He also didn't cry in his usual contrite way. He groaned, held his jaw and peered back at me with desperate green eyes. "Where's Cassie?"

My scowl tensed around my mouth. "Still there." Niko came up behind me; I could feel his eyes raking over me to take stock of my health, where my injuries were, if I was favoring something. Hell, he could probably hear my heartbeat, which had softened to a tolerable double thump.

"You left her there?" Goodfellow nearly screamed in my face. He ducked the second punch.

"She didn't leave me any choice!" I countered. "I didn't want to travel and leave her there! But I'm certainly not taking all the blame when you pricks decided to keep secrets." I panned my glare over to the currently wingless peri standing in the living room. Promise was here too, listing subtly toward her lover; Niko must have been a mess for her to set foot in Robin's apartment. "If you had told us. If you had fucking told us, none of this would have happened."

"Whether we told you or not doesn't pertain—"

"The fuck it doesn't!" I snapped at Ishiah. God, did I want to punch him too, but I feared not coming back with a fist. "You lied to us and you made her lie to me, for what? To protect her? From something like this? From some crazed winged monsters on a power trip or some god-fearing humans attempting to end the Auphe race? Well, guess what? That kinda happened already."

"Cal, what's going on?" Niko asked softly at my elbow. I didn't take my eyes off Ishiah, watching Goodfellow hang his head in uncharacteristic silence out of my peripheral vision.

"Cassie's half Auphe." There was no need to be gentle with my brother. If it was the truth he wanted to hear it out-rightly. I could feel the sudden tension in his body next to me and knew without looking that he was sizing up Robin and Ishiah now too. "And these two knew the whole time. Actually, they've known since before either of us were born."

Silence blanketed the room. I turned my stern gaze back to Robin. The puck half leaned into the island, one hand still to his jaw and his eyebrows pulled taunt. "Nothing to say for yourself?"

"We thought she was dead, Caliban," Robin muttered. He rolled his jaw and dropped his hand behind him to the counter top. "_I_ thought she was dead. My best friend disappeared from our home without a trace and I didn't see her for three hundred years. Seems like nothing, right? I don't even know how long I've lived, three hundred years is..." Robin trailed off. He raised his green eyes to meet mine, then Niko's. "What do you want me to say?"

"She's the reason you trusted me. Even after I shoved you at Abbgor."

Robin paused, but nodded. He raked his fingers through his curly hair. His voice began to rise with a sort of angry emotion; defensive, yeah, that was it. "Niko reminded me of Ishiah, you reminded me of Castiella and I was lonely for both of them. Cassie's the only reason I gave you that second chance. Because I knew that a half Auphe could be the most protective and compassionate friend and obviously that had nothing to do with her being half Auphe!" I didn't jump when he slammed his palm down on the marble, but tension strained over my shoulders and neck. I saw rage taking over enough times to know Goodfellow was ready to reply to my sucker punch. "Because you _left_ her!"

"I didn't want to," I replied evenly.

"Where is she?"

"I don't know."

Robin's jaw clenched visibly. "Why did you leave her? Because she lied?"

"No! I didn't _want _to travel. I was drugged and she forced me."

"Did she rape you as well as toss you through a rip in space?"

I took in a deep breath through my nose to stop myself from pulling my Glock on him. "She triggered a memory long forgotten. I was inhaling some sort of gas, she was screaming at me to go home, and something clicked. Something I doubt she even told you."

"She told me everything," Robin countered.

"She tell you she's the reason I'm here? Because she didn't tell me. She didn't tell me that she saved me in Tumulus. A little lost lamb. And I didn't remember until that moment and my body reacted. I didn't _want_ to travel. I didn't _want_ to leave her like that again."

I felt Niko's hand brace against my back just between my shoulder blades. I closed my eyes for a moment, preparing to face him. Talk of my time in Tumulus and near deaths never went well with him. He never asked questions for fear of me remembering enough to send me back to crazy town. True to form, he asked me, "You remember, Cal?" with caution.

I looked over my shoulder to meet his gray eyes. "Not much. I've been having these dreams. She's in Tumulus with me, beating the shit out of me." I managed a small laugh with that line, but it was as strained as the muscles along my spine. "There's a gate. I think it's hers. She's screams at me to go home. Asks me whose waiting for me." I looked directly at Nik. I didn't need to tell him what my answer had been. We didn't share those brotherly moments like the over emotional douchebags in a chick flick. Things like that, we just knew and understood. They were obvious.

I watched Niko trail his eyes over every inch of my face; reading me, my posture, and my intentions from that. He shifted back from me and surveyed the others in the room. "Robin...that map?"

Robin straightened from the counter and motioned for Ishiah to toss him a blueprint tube I hadn't noticed the peri had been holding. Goodfellow caught it and popped open the container. He cleared his throat as he smoothed a black and white floor plan out on the kitchen island. There were several other blueprints –odd because I always thought blueprints were blue– underneath the top. "As I was saying before Caliban made his grand entrance, I had to delve deep into my array of former contacts. A pity for them. The poor creatures had to deal with the great sadness when I had to deny them the pleasures of—"

I knew the only reason he cut off was because I had my gun to his temple. I also knew his rambling was a defense mechanism that, at the moment, made the world less askew as well as the usual ego stroking. Robin stared at me from the corner of his eyes, tense but not frightened. "You wouldn't." He said it with confidence and he was right; we'd come a long way since they days of me kicking him at a troll squatting under the Brooklyn Bridge. I shifted my aim to his shoulder and lifted my eyebrows. The puck's jaw twitched. "All right, that you might."

"I want her back, Robin. What do you have?"

"Blueprints of several Vigil facilities from Manhattan, Queens, Staten Island, and Brooklyn."

"We're you planning on assailing all four?" I laughed.

"If we had to." It was said behind me by my brother and I could see the same reply clearly in Goodfellow's eyes as well. I holstered my gun and came around the island to look over the first map. It was pretty Greek to me, but even if I couldn't figure out the measurements and keys I could see what was a hallway and what was an office. Niko was at my back again; I could feel him even if he didn't touch me. "Do you remember anything about the building, Cal?"

"We were underground. I'm not positive of that, but it felt that way. No windows, just a corridor of prison cells." I sighed and shook my head. That wasn't much, I knew, but jumping right to the infra-structure of my prison was a little difficult for my brain to gather with everything else running through my head.

"Prison cells?" Robin repeated.

"The Vigil aren't the just and peaceful observers they claim to be. It was like a zoo, except I'm pretty sure those monsters weren't down there for kiddie tours and cracker jack leftovers."

"Experimentation?" Promise chimed in. I watched her delicate fingers graze the top map in consideration. "There have been disappearances for years that the Vigil ignored. I found it odd how selective they were. The very reason they were formed was to protect the humans and the just creatures from the malicious. Or so we were told. Most of us never wanted their help so we disregarded them…that seems to have been a mistake."

"Finding weaknesses, methods of defense." Niko added, putting in his two cents on what the Vigil was up too. His guess was my guess. He looked to me with concern again. "Can Castiella gate?"

"Yeah, in the alley she made this crazy gate that did some major hack and slash on Ishiah's psychotic relatives in a second." A few eyes shifted toward the peri as if to tell me to behave in his presences, but I was still pissed off at him and his asshole brothers didn't deserve respect in life or death if they were attacking me and Cassie just because we didn't get to hand-pick our fathers. I ignored the subtle nudges. "I flipped when I felt it open and shut it, which knocked her out."

"Why didn't she follow you through your gate at the facility?" Niko pressed on. Something in the way he said it made me revisit his previous comment. Finding weaknesses, cracks in the armor. And they found the cracks in the Auphe's armor.

"She couldn't. I woke up in a tomb that resembled a hallowed out baby submarine. It was electrified somehow. I tried to travel and it electrocuted me. Cassie got me out by sheer force and some scary-ass Auphe claws, but she's got something drilled into her spine. She can't travel and I couldn't grab her before I did." I pressed both palms to the counter and leaned over the maps. "They were testing it. They grabbed us to test it. And it worked."

"Underground," Robin asked and pulled up the first map. "That takes out Brooklyn and Queens."

"No," I pulled the second blueprint back onto the island. "If it doesn't show a basement it's more likely that it has one. This place was extensive. That corridor was just a small hallway. It was nothing to them to incinerate it and everything in it."

"They might not keep her there," Robin muttered, raking his fingers through his hair again. "If you got out, they might worry about you finding it again."

I paused for a moment, gears turning in my head in a manner that Niko would beat me to the ground for. "What if I let them find me?" Niko's gray eyes narrowed in a more telling manner than usual, mouth pursed in a thin line. I smirked, then turned to the more receptive Robin. "I've got a plan." 

Unfortunately, plans usually took longer to put together than my nerves were strong. Patience was a virtue, but to be clear I was not a virtuous being by any means. My human kin showed that particular virtue in rare form; my Auphe brethren were actually a bit better with it in comparison. Though if you consider their lifeline, waiting twenty years for me to gate-rippen was a quick turn around. And to top it off, I was American and a New Yorker; we didn't like waiting for a microwave dinner to be finished and a few ice crystals never hurt anyone.

I hated waiting. Reckless abandon in the charge was more my style. No surprise that I preferred the swift death of exploding bullets over a shiv to the kidney. Still there was only so many times I could clean my Desert Eagle, before I started sanding off filings. Just the fact that I was cleaning anything had Nik watching me with great concern. He continued polishing his own arsenal and studying the map work Robin had copied for us without question.

A week. It took a week before even the first level of the plan opened up to us. A week had passed since I'd escaped the Vigil; my plan, which had been tentatively accepted, was taking entirely too much time to form.

Robin had been the one who wanted to charge in guns blazing for once and now I realized I should have agreed with him. The puck wanted to get Cassie out as much as I did, but I didn't have my anxious partner in recklessness at my side for the past few days. Just Niko and his unflappable calm. Robin was busy behind the black market scene; getting information on the Vigil locations and trying to doctor up access keys for infiltrating the building. Promise was hard into her own network doing the same, both attempting to get more detailed structures of the top secret basement, so we knew which building to tag. And Nik and I were left waiting. Waiting and waiting for our damned contact who probably pussy-ed out and wasn't coming.

"He's not coming," I snarled and snapped the chamber back in place. I set the weapon on the coffee table with its many war scars; the wooden contraption had been through hell between Niko and my sparing and the several attacks on us in our home. I was convinced all the kings horses and men didn't try hard enough with Humpty 'cause Nik and I fixed that table with just some crazy glue and clamps.

"He might not," Niko offered with apathy that poorly concealed his silent jubilation. Big brother wasn't pleased with my plan. No surprise since it put me in the lion's mouth. Honestly, the only reason he agreed to swooping in and saving Castiella was because I told him she was the reason I got back to him seven years ago. That and he liked her more than he wanted to admit. She threw her life away for his little brother, what wasn't to like?

"He's told us before that were cut off and I doubt he's unaware of your escape."

"Prick," I grumbled and propped my feet up on the reassembled coffee table. It groaned with the added weight of my boots alone. I sat there for a few seconds in the silence with my hand clasped over my stomach, then gave up and leaned forward to snatch up the remote.

Then the door bell rang. It was one of those obnoxious shrill buzzers, the ones that weren't wired internally but mounted on an ugly box just to the left of our apartment door. I sprang to my feet to answer, but Nik managed to get to the door before me somehow with a blade in hand. The weapon was replied with a Barreta and a very ticked off dark-skinned human on the other side. I gave him a wide smile and let the Eagle hang from its trigger guard on one finger with my hands up. "Afternoon, Sammy. How's it hanging?"

Samuel glowered at me, the gun aimed in my direction. Either he thought Niko wouldn't attack with my life in danger or he considered me the worse threat —a poor choice on his part. He'd also never really shown disdain for me. Not when he was manipulating me as he joined forces with the Auphe who promised to save someone they never acknowledged let alone would ever protect. Not when he was flipping sides and aiding us in stopping the Auphe. Not even when I'd nearly gotten his niece killed and probably gave her heart a hairline fracture when I told her it would never work between us because she wouldn't use her psychic powers to tell me if I killed her in the future should we try to date. There was more to that, but I doubted Uncle Sammy got the proper story. George was much too private and relatives liked to draw their own conclusions.

All in all, as fucked up as the bastard was, Samuel wasn't a bad guy. He wasn't a monster. He never scowled at me before today, never judged, but I supposed he figured his atonement for nearly unmaking the human race had been complete after a few years working for the Vigil. I didn't agree, but that was just me.

"Samuel," Niko warned, short sword still at the ready to his side. Samuel glanced out the corners of his eyes, but didn't move his aim.

"You seriously expect me to just walk in here without protection? Your brother managed to escape a locked down penitentiary, then had the gall to call me up with demands."

"A penitentiary?" Niko repeated. I thought that was an odd choice of words too. It was very prison-like, but I certainly didn't think the Vigil would consider it the same and I hadn't been doing anything particularly bad and evil lately to have me locked up. At least, there had to be other monsters out there that deserved 25 to life before I did.

"So you admit the Vigil has decided to take law into their own hands and lock up innocent creatures?" Niko went on, tilting his head to one side. I watched his braid swing, but Samuel didn't budge other than his teeth grinding under his dark skin.

"There are no innocent creatures in that facility and their kind do not abide by human law to begin with. We have to govern them any way we can." Great, it was 'their kind' now. The Vigil had finally gone humans vs. aliens on us.

"And what did I do to be chucked in there?"

Samuel snorted. "Caliban you have been on our watch list from the moment your birth was recorded. Your history is a cataclysm of destruction both small and large scale. Killing the Cheris clan chiefs—"

"I didn't kill them and they were killed in self defense," I interrupted, surprisingly calm now that the tool showed up. It didn't matter that he had a shiny gun on me. Nik could disarm him before it fired and I could dodge with the best of 'em. He wasn't leaving until he said yes, I would see to that. "And put the gun down, Sammy. You know it's just a pleasantry with us. We're beyond that."

Samuel frowned, wide nostrils flaring, but he conceded. He lowered the gun and holstered it at his hip. Niko did the same with his sword into the sheath in his other hand. He closed the door behind Sammy with the weapon and took position between the exit and Vigil-boy...man, whatever.

"Now," I started, lowering my own arms even if I didn't holster my gun. "Tell me again why self defensive murder tosses you into a psycho lab prison without trial?" Samuel puffed out his chest with a deep breath and shoved his hands in the pockets of his black jacket. "Your people weren't just wardens, Samuel. They were experimenting on Cassie. Surgically implanting things in her."

"I don't know who Cassie is, Caliban."

"Slight girl, dark blond hair. Big brown eyes and full pouty lips. Oh and half peri, half Auphe." I lifted my chin. "Ring a bell?"

Samuel closed his eyes for a moment. He sighed like a parent disappointed. "The Harbinger then. When my colleagues said you were mating I didn't believe it. I didn't think you were that stupid."

I bared my teeth. "I'm surprised your array of brilliant scientist colleagues didn't figure out that she can't produce children."

"Is that what she told you?" The challenge in Samuel's voice didn't sit well in my stomach. I trusted Cassie on this. There was no reason for her to lie. Robin confirmed that she had been in Tumulus while they thought she was dead. I knew she was just as hell bent on killing the Auphe as me. Why would she lie to me about being barren so more little hell spawns were born? "You believe her? A creature that was spawned solely to destroy the peris? Amazing what a little hormonal attraction can do."

I whipped the Eagle up and aimed it at his forehead, still feet away but close enough to splatter his brains all over our front door. A little drastic yes, but he was pissing me off. Where did the level-headed idiot that used to tip-toe around us go? Samuel replied with a hand to his own gun, but Niko's sword edge touched his wrist before he could drawl. "Cal, I doubt you're plan would succeed as well with him dead."

"So we get a new plan. You didn't really like my plan anyway."

"Put the gun away." It was rare for Nik to speak those kinds of demands aloud. Usually he just gave me a look and I reluctantly or rebelliously complied. I did the same, slipping the Desert Eagle into my shoulder holster once Sammy brought both hands into full view.

"What did we do to have you target us now?" I asked, not even attempting to hide venom where a bullet was due. "Cassie hasn't harmed anyone for centuries. And I save the world three fucking times."

"The peris warned us the Harbinger had resurfaced and told us to monitor. Her history with them is violent, reckless, and extensive. Her actions last week and your aid are a clear indications that her mission to annihilate the peris as a race—"

"The peris have been trying to kill her for two thousand years!"

"Rightfully. The Harbinger decimated their families."

"So now you get to rule over the preternatural as well as the human race? Who gave you such rights?" Niko cut in. "I understand the necessity to contain the more powerful and violent races. I understand to preserve humanity you need to monitor them and execute them if they compromise the existence of a population. But when did you become judge and jury? When did it become right for you to incarcerate a being that was only defending themselves?"

"Humans need a champion," Samuel answered levelly as if that negated everything Niko said. Obviously his listening skills were as prime as mine.

"That I agree with, but you have no rights to—"

"We have a right to survive!"

"A right to survive not to collect varying races to experiment on!"

"We need to study the stronger opponent. I'm sure you're aware of that standard war tactic. Humans are the weaker species. We need to adapt our defenses to survive."

"Not at the expense of the innocent!"

As momentous as Niko in a heated argument was, it was giving me a headache and making my trigger finger itch. I grabbed Samuel at the collar of his shirt and swung him into the nearest wall. The asshole gave off a grunt and played up his limp as if I'd take pity on him because he suffered the injury for staying in a collapsing building to let us escape. Screw that, he betrayed and lied to me to get us in the building in the first place. We could talk about pity and sympathy when he laid down his life for us with an emotion other than guilt, but no promises.

"How about we get down to business and save the philosophical bull shit for the celebratory dinner later, yeah?" I growled, shooting an aggravated look toward my brother as well. Niko actually seemed startled by my attack, but he didn't stop me and didn't pull me away as I pressed Samuel against the dry wall with his arm twisted behind his back away from his gun. "I didn't do anything to endanger the usually saner half of my lineage and Cassie doesn't belong in your little lab hell. So you're going to help us get her out if you don't want the Vigil to burn."

"And how do you plan to do that? The facilities a guarded by soldiers trained to kill first and reconsider later." His words were half muffled since his cheek was smashed against the wall. I yanked his arm up to elicit a small moan from Sammy.

"Good to know. Means I have a job prospect if this whole saving the world one villain at a time thing doesn't work out," I countered. "I'm going to let you up now and when I do you sit down on the couch and listen to everything we say. If you don't I'm going to be very upset because Nik will force me to clean up the mess I make and I'll to have to come up with a new plan that may or may not involve killing every last one for you dicks."

Sammy said nothing and when I let him go he didn't exactly as he was told. What a good little sheep, he was.


	14. Chapter 14 Robin

**Chapter Fourteen**

**Robin**

Some of the most innocuous buildings housed the most malicious events of all time. Many were unknown or hidden from human history. The murder of the last male Ifrit took place in a small village barn outside of what was currently known as Glasgow. It took eighteen hours for the poor creature to die and it was his sisters, whom only lasted two centuries there after, that tortured and killed him. In the unassuming cottage outside of Hamburg, the vampire Michael Devonhurst strung the intestines of Ben Bathurst along the broken lattice work in his garden to be feasted on by the local avian and proclaimed the diplomat simply disappeared. Lore had it that even Cassie's path down the peris destruction began in the most modest shack of the Brakques chief. That particular clan was known for shunning the material before luxury was a known concept.

Over history humans showed the same pattern. In secluded farms, warehouse basements, and dilapidated homes, the gruesome and horrid took place. How often did you hear of a cultist massacre occurring in the Taj Mahal or Westminster Abbey? The silent and desolate was key and when silent and desolate was unobtainable in the location, the offender chose to blend in. As the Vigil did for their degrading underground lab.

It was a squat two-story building walled with windows and a shiny new metal skeleton frame. It spanned a two block radius in the middle of a five block office park stretch. No one would glance twice even without a brand on its face. Cassie was down there; beneath the glittering beast, stuck in its belly and succumbing to the tortures of human hands.

I closed my eyes and took in a deep breath of car exhaust and other 'delightful' fragrances of a busy New York street. A hot dog vendor down the street peddled to the office workers slipping out for a quick lunch before returning to spreadsheets and number crunching. The pizza shop across the way had a few smokers straggling at the cafe tables and the Starbucks had a line out the door even at one in the afternoon. As I said, no one even lingered to see the beast that crouched among them. And I wasn't talking about myself or the peri standing resolutely behind me with a hand clamped to my shoulder.

"I'm not going to rush in and demand her back at gun point," I told Ishiah, but he didn't let up.

"I worry more that you'll overestimate the charm of your pretty please." The insult made my jaw tense and I attempted to relax. Ground teeth weren't becoming. "Is this it?"

I nodded. Ishiah didn't even ask if I was sure. Promise and I had exhausted all of our contacts digging up information. It was a trying process for me. Some of my contacts, despite the eye-rolling that occurred when I mentioning such, were quite vexed that I couldn't reward their services as I usually did. One incubus nearly lost his manhood (and livelihood) attempting to take his wages by force.

They'd all led me to Moll DeGrow, a lamia famed for drinking the blood of the infants of families that spurned her temper in the neighborhood. Tall tales claimed she'd been burned or died of a heart attack or simply disappeared. Apparently, she'd been holed up in Vigil facilities for centuries and continued to be the single being that escaped alive. Tracking her down was a near thing to a wild goose chase and left me seeking out my bed for sleep rather than the usual activities. Although I could now officially claim I'd been to South Dakota…if one could consider that an achievement. She would have been a great help. If the Vigil had remained in the building she'd escaped that is. That building had been abandoned ages ago.

She could give me no maps or routes, only the address of a building she avidly avoided; the reason she left New York two days after she arrived. She said she just knew what they were doing there and she wouldn't return to that hell. And here I stood before that very structure without an ounce of fear in my heart. Because all I could see was Castiella's prison. I wanted to rush in like a bull charging, or –more my style– slip in the back door and steal her away from under their noses.

"You would be caught," Ishiah warned me, following my train of thought. His lips brushed against the shell of my ear in a manner than would normally perk me up, purposefully no doubt. "They would lock you away and considering I just got you I'm not ready to part with my new toy."

That actually got a small smile out of me and I tilted my head into the pressure of his lips to my temple. "Either that or one of the few pucks left in the world would die riddled with rifle shots," he went on. "And I would like that even less."

"You underestimate me." I smirked and turned to face him. "But your concern is delectable."

He was two steps behind me as I crossed the plaza and walked brazenly through the glass doors. The two above ground floors were public access and we were banking on the assumption that the Vigil wouldn't make a scene should we take a stroll through their fence business. We had no weapons, as we wouldn't have passed through the metal detectors as subtly as we did. Our bodies would usually be enough of a weapon against humans, but Ishiah brought up a valid concern regarding the soldiers below. I could out run a Gatling gun spray one hundred years ago, but I had yet to test my abilities on the progressive militia as it was now.

A typical office greeted us through the doorway. Linoleum floors, strip lighting, and drop ceilings. Everything was clean and crisp with modern edges and open desks, very little foliage—how depressing. Workers were dressed in mid-class business attire with department store suits and laminated ID cards. The latter of which I pilfered off the first grunt I passed. I needed to test them, copy them, and figure out which damned doors they opened. I'd need one from a security guard, no doubt, and planned on snatching one from whomever slid out of the basement doors.

Ishiah and I meandered through the lobby and into the open spread of cubicles to the left, exuding confidence to prevent questions. Unfortunately too much confidence and not enough caffeine high jitters made the guards posted at every door eye us with suspicion. I ignored them and walked between the cubicle forest like I was their CEO. A few wandering eyes found me, but damned if these were the most immersed workers I'd ever made acquaintance with. The only comparison I could conjure was when I sat to dinner with Twain and he barely spared me –_me–_ a glance between his manuscript pages. The innovative were always so focused.

Just one stairwell entrance was guarded, the other left clear. I glanced toward Ishiah in my peripheral and he nodded minutely. I dodged a passing intern struggling with a stack of file folders, pivoted around the corner cubicle and ducked into the empty stairwell. And that was all it was, an empty stairwell leading to the second level with no basement door and no indication one might be hidden.

"_Gamoto_," I hissed and slapped my palm to the door that wasn't there. Ishiah hadn't even closed the door, holding it open for me to slip back out. His expression was smug as if he were happy it was a dead end. I supposed he was, since he didn't want me down there to begin with. I glared at him, but froze the moment I exited back into the office, my path blocked by a tall human in a black suit with a tell-tale bulge under his arm. Locked and loaded and me without protection.

At least it was just a little 9mm; I could disarm a human in a heartbeat if necessary. "Afternoon."

"It is," the man replied cheekily. Not the most attractive of species with a bald uneven skull and shoulders much too broad for his frame. His brow was crowned with two impressive bushes in need of maintenance, but he had a nice nose –very regal– and soft baby blue eyes that were probably and out right lie.

He had two friends with him, both younger and more attractive, but their scowls did nothing to reel in the ladies. "A puck and a peri walk into a bar...," the bald human teased and crossed his arms over his chest. "Unarmed too."

"Depends on what weapons were comparing, because that little Barreta isn't very impressive."

The human's facial features didn't even twitch. "Can we help you with something?"

"Just having a look around. I never noticed this building before; my curiosity was piqued." Again no expression from the peanut gallery. "I thought this was a public facility. If I was mistaken—"

"How oblivious do you think we are, puck?" I decided answering him would probably not help our situation in the least, that and Ishiah clamped a hand over my mouth. The bald human smiled at that, as if he'd anticipated I would lecture him on the extensive history of idiocy among the human race and wanted me to. Probably needed an excuse to wave his Barreta about like a to-scale extension of lower regions. Strange, an armed human usually didn't need a reason to flash it.

Baldy circled around to one side of me as Ishiah removed his hand from my mouth. I eyed him in caution, but all he wanted was to herd me away from the stairwell. Interesting. "We may be a young race, but we adapt and we learn. And we watch, closely."

I stepped away from the doorway wondering if their protection of it was a ruse to make me believe there was something down there, or if the posted guards were the ruse and there really _was_ something down there. Only one way to find out. I punched the black suit.

His comrades pulled out their weapons and the clacking of keystrokes fell silent within the cubicle jungle. Baldy, or Lt. Dale Herney, if his lamented tag were to be believed, seethed at me with those baby blues.

"Now that was quiet nefarious and uncalled for, wasn't it?" I cooed. I could tell by the sigh behind me that my lover was less than pleased by my actions and that displeasure was shared by the Lieutenant. He straightened his suit and lifted his chin despite the spot of blood on his split lip. I guess I was spending too much quality time with Caliban. "Does this garner a tour or do I need to insult you verbally as well?"

"Robin," Ishiah growled, but stopped at that. I figured he just wanted to inform me that allowing the lambs to lead me to the slaughter was a simpleton's mistake.

"You believe you are a just and righteous creature?" Lt. Herney asked with a thick later of arrogance.

"Should I answer the question or repeat it so you can consider the same?" Herney jabbed a fist into my shoulder to turn me about face and shoved me into the stairwell. Since his officers still had their guns aimed I obliged and Ishiah followed.

"Pucks," Herney went on behind me. "Fauns, Pans, the lover and the trickster. You are a monster all your own. Stealing wives and wealth from those who earned it through labors."

"I must correct you there," I interceded, stopping in front of the blank wall as the others filed in and let the heavy door shut. "I never singled out the wives and truly it was always more tantalizing when the spouses were involved. More often than not it aided marriages. And as for the stealing; I certainly refrained from harming those less privileged. Your kind completed that sin all their own time and time again." The back end of Herney's gun met my cheek bone smartly. The only reason I allowed it was due to the trajectory path hitting Ishiah's jaw if I hadn't. The solid peri caught me when I stumbled on impact. His breath cut against my ear with anger.

"Don't do that again," he warned, reading my actions as well as if I'd said them aloud. The humans took it as Ishiah telling me to shut up and we let them. Herney smirked at me as he replaced his gun to its holster and motioned his shiny skull upstairs.

Upstairs? I eyed the steps with caution. Cal said there were no windows and the second floor was wrapped in them. Apparently we weren't privy to the full tour.

"We know who you are Goodfellow. Have bulging files transcribing your histories and felonies against the human race. How you attempt anonymity even as you boast your indiscretions."

"Anonymity? Everything I've done I've claimed."

"And many things you have not done you've claimed as well. How many Robin Goodfellows are there, puck?"

"Not as many as there once were," I answered reluctantly. "We are skilled in everything we do and perhaps are a bit narcissistic, but loneliness is our only crutch and it can be lethal as I'm sure you know—"

"You are Robin Goodfellow," Herney countered, still grinning. "As I said, anonymity. Proclaiming a name is shared among you so the blame and glory can be shared as well. But you each have a name. You each have a history and I will concur that yours is purer than others such as Hobgoblin or Loki, yet your name was the one sighted as the devil where the Hob just plays in the cinders."

I took in a deep breath, letting it out through my nose. "That's the thing about histories; they change to fable the longer they travel through man's lips and ears."

"Then it's a good thing I learned all about you from Loki himself. Amazing what he will do for a conjugal visit or a night out."

I felt my heart seize. Loki wasn't the oldest among us, but he was a close thing. He wasn't as malicious a puck as Hobgoblin, but he was still an underhanded bastard. I hadn't heard a whisper about him for a few hundred years. He actually disappeared around the same time Cassie slipped away the first time, so I'd thought it was because he couldn't stalk her anymore. Amusing how the pucks were so drawn to her; probably because she refused every one of us. "You have Loki here?"

"We did, I suppose you would say. He perished in a little accidental fire about a week ago. Now," he paused and motioned with his hand to the upper level. "If you would proceed."

I panned my eyes to Ishiah, trying to tell him to escape now. I needed him on outside if I screwed up on the inside. This wasn't part of Caliban's plan, but I wasn't about to pass up the chance to see this place from within even if part of that time was within a jail cell. Ishiah's blue-gray eyes hooded in a negative. He wasn't leaving; I should have known that, but I was still both insulted that he didn't believe in me and warmed that he cared enough that he didn't want to leave me.

"And if we don't proceed?" I challenged.

Lt. Herney gave me that sadistic smirk again. "Then you walk out the front door and try not to let us find you snooping about so easily next time."

"Robin," Ishiah murmured. He took my upper arm and urged me toward the gap between the minions. "Perhaps we should be on our way."

"You go," I told him, refusing to evade the Lieutenant's stare. "I'd like to see my friend."

"I'm sorry, puck, but Loki is no longer with us—"

"You know very well who I'm referring to."

"Robin, we should go," Ishiah whispered in my ear. I elbowed him back, glared and started stomping up the stairs. I felt their eyes on me from behind, but that was a common sensation it was just usually more in appreciation than suspicion. "Robin!" Ishiah snapped again with a little more desperation. If it hadn't been for that emotion I wouldn't have turned around. The two officers were herding him back out of the stairwell, guns drawn.

I got two steps down before Lt. Herney leveled his weapon with my chest. "Turn around Goodfellow. We'll give you what you want. The peri won't be joining you though, his brother has seen to his safety." Herney lifted his aim just enough to encourage me a step back and consequently up. "Now, Jameson, please call the desk to have Ishiah escorted to his brother while we take Goodfellow to his new home."

The ground level door open and several security guards stood awaiting their orders. Herney didn't take his eyes off of me. "Although I can't say it won't be an eventful reunion considering you killed his father. Which is, I must presume, why Joel requested we take the puck and not the peri."

Ishiah stood resolutely among them, at least a half a head taller and several inches wider in muscular girth and damn my ever-ready hormones for kicking in at that moment. I braced myself and gave him a short nod. He had to trust me to get out of this and I had to trust that if I couldn't he would get me out.

Ishiah glared, but shrugged the men off and stormed out of the stairwell. I smiled as his wings appeared in his irritation and nearly knocked out one of the guards in passing.

The corridor went silent save for the door's echo once it closed. Lt. Herney continued to grin at me and the other young men didn't replace their guns. I remained on the landing waiting for several seconds before my patience gave out. "You assured me something for my cooperation, did you not?"

Herney snorted and slipped his gun out of view again. I'm sure it wasn't lost on them that Ishiah and I could have easily disposed of them and escaped without a scratch. "Right this way, prince."

He led the way to the second floor with Dee and Dum keeping distance behind me. The door opened without swipe or key, though it was obviously triggered by an automated source. The second level looked strikingly like the first through structural integrity, but the center was not a maze of cubes and glass offices. It was blocked off entirely by a heavy walled structure that would be difficult to spot from the outside. Interns and lab coats walked the rectangular hallway that wrapped around to keep up appearances, but when they ducked into an office I could catch glimpses of server rooms, laboratories, and walk-in freezers.

Herney took me to the west-facing hall and knocked twice on the single door there. A buzzer rang and a steam-and-gear driven sound accompanied the door rolling open. Control Center lied out before me if assumptions could be trusted. As long as I'd lived, I prided myself on keeping up with human technology, but even this room was out of my skill set. I didn't admit to that readily.

The upper areas of the walls were covers with LCD screen after LCD. Below that was the same only not as home theatre-sized. The first showed satellite feed or views of tiny cells with huddled or enraged forms twitching within; observation of their specimens, no doubt. The second row of screens displayed nothing more than code and diagram that only the greatest of hackers could make sense of. Then there were the terminals, lit up keyboards without keys and a human stationed at each, wired into communication via ear buds that were barely visible save for a minute blue glow.

Across the room was another door and between myself and that door was a uniformed man in all black and decorated like a war hero. He peered at us when we entered, but deemed me an insufficient threat for his full attention to be garnered. "Which one is this?" he asked in a gravelly voice that was probably attributed to a life of smoking.

"Robin Goodfellow, Lt. General Davis," Herney answered crisply. "Promised him he could see the Harbinger before we showed him to his room."

The Lieutenant General, as noted by the three shiny stars on his shoulders, turned to regard me, revealing a face only a mother could love. The body of a steroid pumped bull and the face of a scarred ogre. Hard brow and sharp lines around his mouth to indicate a constant frown. He was bald as well, with deep set brown eyes and a long nose, bulbous at the nostrils. I replied to his disdain with a lift of my chin and waited for him to speak.

"I'm surprised. I imagined you would be as chatty as your cousins."

"I have other things on my mind," I answered coolly. He clicked his shoes together as he approached and glared down the short distance between us. His uniform hat was under one arm, just above a firearm at his thick waist. I was beginning to regret embarking on this adventure without a weapon.

"You realize that once you pass through those doors, you will not see sunlight for a very long time," he warned. Part of me was shocked to know they would give me two opportunities to voluntarily leave unscathed. It showed a miniscule amount of human compassion that remained. I wasn't a threat to the human race and they were aware of such, therefore if I said I wanted to leave now they would allow it and only continue to monitor me from afar.

"I want to see my friend."

"You're forfeiting your freedom to see her for mere seconds, puck."

"I don't intend to spend the rest of my life here, I assure you," I retorted with a coy smile. "But I look forward to your efforts to keep me here. It will be quite an adventure to boast of in years to come."

"You will regret that overconfidence, Goodfellow, but if you insist," he trailed off and gave a quick nod over his shoulder. Herney and the two officers retreated out of the room the way we came in and I was left with the dozen computer techs and the Lieutenant General as my company. He spun again, back to me without concern, and proceeded to lean over the doorframe. A retinal scan peeled back the second door and I sneered at the trouble that would cause later. Of course, if I had Cassie with me we would have no need for the automated door system at all. A gate or merely our combined efforts of kicking it would suffice.

The interior door slid open to a wide foyer. To my left and right were two more control offices, both had windows in the doors to allow visual affirmation that no specimen would be allowed within. In front were three lanes, stretching down the length of the two block building. I couldn't even see the doorway down the other side. One glance along the center lane and I could see Caliban's description fit to perfection. Barred doors, steel and reinforced, lined every ten feet. No windows, no exits other than the one behind me and possibly one at the end of the halls. And the hall to my left was completely sealed off.

It was brilliant really. Within these walls it felt like we were sunken into a basement. Another smoke and mirrors act to make those within disoriented and those trying to find it looking in the wrong place.

Two white coats emerged from the left office; one held a stack of pale green scrubs like those found in a hospital and the other clutching a clipboard. "Afternoon, Lt. General."

"Afternoon, Dr. Dauphe, Elizabeth." The two women nodded in respect and stood awaiting orders. "Please process our new resident. Green flag, red watch." They nodded again, the one with a clipboard jolted down some notes, and Lt. General stepped back letting the white coats drift closer.

"Please strip," Dr. Dauphe commanded. I lifted my eyebrows, then shrugged. If they wanted the show why deny them. It probably wasn't every day they were graced with the perfect physic of a puck. I wrinkled my nose, forgetting that Loki had previously been the resident puck. I still striped down to my natural state, smirking when eyes roved.

Elizabeth, a little pixie of a girl with large brown eyes and frazzled brown hair in need of highlights, offered me the scrubs and I eyed them with distaste. Poly-blend was not something I allowed to touch my skin. "Would you be offended if I just remained as nature intended?"

"Put on the clothes, puck," Lt. General Davis barked as if he'd had to do so several times past. I sighed and snatched up the drawstring pants, leaving the wrap-around shirt behind. This seemed adequate for Elizabeth took the shirt with my clothes back to the office.

"I'll be getting those back, yes? Because I will warn you in some religions it is blasphemous to incinerate Armani and Valentino." Davis didn't answer and I felt the first niggle of fear for my suit. I watched the pristine woven cotton and wool disappear through the window and let off another sigh; the military never had any regard for the finer things.

"Follow me," Lt. General Davis grumbled. I did, with a few awkward steps when the stiff fabric of the pants rubbed against sensitive areas uncomfortably. He took me down the right aisle. Muffled sounds of mourning and fury reverberated into the corridor behind every third door or so. I could catch lingering scents of varying species, from the tangy musk of a Manicore to the mossy fragrance of a wood nymph. A nymph? What felonious activity could a nymph partake in? These bastard weren't basing it on threat level, they were just collecting as much information they could. Human preservation…no wonder even the Auphe dwindled in their presence.

The Lieutenant General by passed all of the cells, taking me down to the end of the corridor. He stood before a simple metal door that still had minor scouring from custodial attempts at removing the blood or claw marks. It took a moment for this one to slide open, though I didn't think it was activated by a retinal scan like the last. Inside was a room much like a guard station at a hotel. Smaller screens to monitor each cell, older forms of communication, and only three lab guards at the terminals.

They all turned and glanced back at me when we entered, then promptly stood at attention for the Lieutenant General, who commanded, "Cell: Alpha Delta 8, status." I surveyed the screens and saw the horror that was their confined zoo. Creatures both humanoid and beast were stalled into tiny rooms given only a bed and bathroom facilities. Some were even strapped down, lolling in a drugged stupor. I picked Cassie out in a second, though I couldn't see her clearly as a man in a lab coat was bent over her, obscuring most of her body from view. She was bound to the bed, unmoving.

The guards paused, glancing among each other. "Dr. Anderson is with the Harbinger right now, Lt. General." He nodded his bald head with its scar trailing to his nape and grabbed me by the upper arm to drag me out. I swung away with a glare and stepped out of the mini-control room. The door hissed shut behind us and the Lieutenant General pressed me forward with a purposeful gate. He yanked me to a halt by my shoulder, spun me to face one of the barred doors. He swiped his card, punched in a series of numbers into the keypad (1-8-3-5-0-*), and pressed his thumb to the glowing square below the numbers. Beautiful; that was going to be a cumbersome to re-activate.

The bars unlocked with a sharp sound, then rolled back by gears unseen. Once they were flush against the frame, the door followed suit. Dr. Anderson greeted us with a frightened look, hand shaking on a stun gun's trigger. He sighed in relief upon seeing the broad shouldered General with me and lowered the gun. "Lt. General Davis," he breathed out. "I didn't expect you to check on her so soon."

"How is our timeline?"

"The same."

I stared at the dull creature lying prone on the cot; a small thing no better than a hospital gurney with harsh lines of metal raise at each side tethering her with nylon straps to the mattress. She was resting, lashes a dark fringe on pale cheeks. Her lips were full, but discolored to flesh tone. Her arms were stark white with prominent blue and purple veins leading to a needle attached to the back of her hand. A bag of clear liquid was dripping down through the connected tube and it was all the will power I had not to rip it out. They were drugging her into submission. It was appalling.

I walked up to the bed, listening to them as I ran my fingers over the crown of her matted blond hair. She was clean, smelled so sterilized that I couldn't even catch a hint of Hawthorne. I half expected her to be cold to the touch, she was so pale, but warmth met my fingertips and breath lifted her chest under the thin scrubs wrapped around her body.

"We've been monitoring her hourly, but it was an extensive injury. We can't hope to re-implant the module until her spine has healed completely."

"I was promised she healed swiftly. Are you telling me the surgery has been pushed back?"

"Not at all. Our healers can only aid her so much, but the Harbinger is healing well on her own. Her muscle and nervous systems respond well to stimulus as well as voluntary command, but her body is not ready for surgery—"

"What did you do to her?" I hissed out, glaring my worst at the white coat. He pushed up his horn-rimmed glasses and sniffled.

"She did this to herself, Mr…?"

"Goodfellow," I answered. "Robin Goodfellow." The scientist's thinning eyebrows lifted and he glanced over at his superior. Lt. General Davis made no facial expression to indicate what Dr. Anderson should or shouldn't say so the white coat went on.

"She tore out the module we implanted, severing several fibers in her spine and chipping the column." I stared down at my dearest friend, fingers still tracing through her hairline. Caliban said the implants were snapped into her spine, that he didn't dare remove them by force. Castiella was obviously more reckless and it left her immobile and completely vulnerable to these bastards. "She was deemed quadriplegic for forty-eight hours, regained some movement through forced stimulus by seventy-two, and recently has begun voluntary movement."

"And meanwhile how many samples have you taken without consent?" I growled. I couldn't imagine Cassie helpless, never seen her prone and rarely submissive. Dr. Anderson straightened his back, then the lapels of his lab coat before peering over at Lt. General Davis. Neither of them answered me. Not that I cared when the poor creature between us made the most diminutive sound I'd ever heard from her.

I reaffirmed my hand against her skin, assuring her I was there with touch as well as whispering the same to her verbally, "I'm here, Cas. Just keep healing. We'll get out of this."

Her dark cherry wood eyes fluttered open at my voice and despite the drugs, despite her immobility and misery, she glared at me. "You idiot."

I smiled, knowing she'd be as angry as Ishiah was when he left. She was a peri after all and they despised when others interfered with their self sacrifices. I kissed her brow, stroking back her tangled hair. "Don't act so surprised. I'm not the only one set on getting you back."

Cassie groaned softly and tilted her head into my palm. "Well," she said hoarsely. "We blowin' this joint?"

I smirked at her bravado, more than aware that the Lieutenant General was slinking up beside me. "Ready when you are," I teased.

Her mouth quirked up on one side and her brown eyes lit with their usual fire. It was the only warning she gave me. I had to step back before she knocked Lt. General Davis out with the metal underside of her gurney. Dr. Anderson cried out and bolted for the door. I caught him by the collar of his lab coat and slammed him into the nearest wall, felling him without even that much force. There was a series of snaps from under the overturned gurney, which Cassie was still under, but I was more concerned with the Lieutenant General clamoring to his feet and tearing his gun out of its holster. Not that his bloodstained smile was long lived.

The gurney twisted up from the ground, catapulted by a powerful force from beneath. It plowed down the armed human, slamming his gun out of hand and striking him twice before landing on top of him. He stilled on the floor. I grabbed the discarded gun regardless as it skittered across the linoleum and shot out the camera in the corner. It was a Colt 45, which meant it was too heavy to stuff in my elastic waist of imitation cotton.

Cassie was still on the ground. Her breathing labored as she stared up at the ceiling. Red burns from the rope laid in crosshatched rings around her wrists, arms, and legs all of which were exposed in the little sleeveless wrap dress she wore. Same material as my own, just much less of it. It was a wonder she wasn't shivering on the cold ground. "That hurt a lot more than I anticipated."

I dropped to her side and helped her into a sitting position, glad she could achieve as much mostly of her own accord. "We only have a few minutes, Cas."

Just as I said it, the vents along the upper walls slid open and a white mist started billowing in. "Seconds," Cassie corrected and gathered her legs under her. If possible she looked even skinnier. Her legs so pale and thin, they looked fragile enough to snap on a wayward wind. "Get the door." But that didn't stop her willfulness.

I coughed in reply and snatched up a near by surgical mask, tossing one to Castiella as well. "Card, code, and thumb print."

Cassie didn't need anymore explanation than that, but she did have a question, "pulse or no pulse?" I glared over the edge of the mask for that maliciousness. She shrugged and kicked the gurney off the Lieutenant General. "All right, all right." She dragged the unconscious uniform over so I could steal his key card and add it to my collection. I watched her eyebrow lift, good natured even if we were both wavering on our feet from the gas. "I don't want to know where you hid those."

I grinned lasciviously even if she couldn't see it behind the mask. I put the office worker's and Herney's cards away, swiping Lt. General Davis' through the card reader. I punched the number and Cassie stretched up his arm to scan his thumb. Surprisingly, the door opened. I half expected they'd put it on lock down and cut their losses. However, the moment we barreled out of the room the alarm started going off, red lights revolving up and down the hall.

"Shit," Cassie hissed and grabbed my arm. She hauled me down the corridor almost faster than my longer legs could follow. I could see why; at the end a door was rolling down to protect the offices and workers in the end control rooms. Cutting them off from the line of cells between.

I didn't ask if she was crazy or if there was another exit because I knew. I'd seen the layout and knew what Cal retold. Those doors would lock down, the cells would open and this room would turn into a Holocaust internment camp. Like an action movie stunt double Castiella dropped to her side, taking me with her and under eighteen inches of descending metal. We slid to safety on the other side of the door. And I had a second to breathe a sigh of relief as it sealed shut behind us.

Cassie leaped to her feet the moment we cleared it, but her body was taxed and the dozen or so guns bearing down on us didn't help the situation. She swayed into me. I lifted the pilfered gun, held her to me, and readied a deep and profound speech that would, no doubt, convince them to set us free. The breath I took was wasted. Every black uniform in front of us opened fire and with no where to go I dropped to the ground, covering Cassie's head. I felt the bullets bite coldly through my flesh. Heard Castiella's scream echoing in the black that engulfed me. Heard someone shouting for them to cease fire. I couldn't breathe and even more disconcerting couldn't speak. I knew I would die one day, someday, it was inevitable for all creatures. But I honestly never thought the humans would succeed in taking me out. And I never thought it would be so damn nauseating. It felt like I'd combusted into a million atoms. Scattered about the universe, only to be yanked back together as well as fate could fit me...wait, I knew that feeling. It wasn't death.

I cursed with the scarce breath I had and tied to grope around my body for a physical location. I was on hard ground, cold and tiled. A foundation. Not floating in space. "Cas?"

"Robbie," she whimpered. Her feet padded barefoot over to me. I only knew because I felt the rhythmic vibrations over the rumble of something heavy rolling or dragging. Her fingers grazed my cheeks, brushed through my hair. "I'm sorry. That was so stupid of me." She cursed a few times in perian. I could feel little drops of warmth tickling my chest and shoulder and had to assume Cassie was hit as well since it was too thick for tears. It would take a true god to be able to avoid all the bullets in a semi-automatic spray.

"Where are we?" She gated, I knew, but where? I could feel bile rising up in my throat from being ripping through time and space. It wasn't a pleasant sensation unless you were part Auphe, then it made you giddy if Cal and Cassie were any indication. I rolled over to vomit onto the tile and blinked the blood out of my eyes. My head pounded, but I didn't know if that was from the gate or a head wound...I hoped it was the gate. "Where?"

"My cell," she told me. "Square one. I didn't know where else to gate. I only know Tumulus and I don't," she paused to catch her breath and let off a little sound of pain. "I don't know if you'd even survive that. I'm sorry."

I touched her shoulder, then vomited again. I could hear boots thundering down the hall, the siren alarm now silent. No fire, no emergency sprinklers. We waited side-by-side for the door to whine open and the marksmen to enter. They wouldn't kill us now that we'd been subdued. They would heal us for their greater good because they knew Cassie wouldn't attack until I was safe.

I wiped my mouth, glad I'd given up my Armani slacks in that moment.


	15. Chapter 15 Cal

**Chapter Fifteen**

**CAL**

What was that saying? Best laid plans... Hell, I couldn't remember the rest of it, but I knew it ended with a negative punch line. Just like my life.

My best laid plans, which were only 'best' because I actually attempted to think them through, were transpiring swimmingly. I just wasn't sure that was a good thing anymore. I trusted my life –_Niko's_ life– with a man we were blackmailing. Drugged to the point of unconsciousness we let Samuel and his Vigil crew haul me into custody. Well, Niko was drugged, I was just playing the good brother, while making sure they didn't hurt him. Niko pointed out how moronic it would be to have us both dead to the world and probably soon after that would be literal.

Plan was as followed: convince the Vigil that Sammy had shot Niko with a tranquilizer gun (which he did) and that, to keep my brother safe, I was cooperating (which I was, just with ulterior motives). I was 'trusting' that the Vigil wouldn't hurt one of their own. Especially because Niko had saved their asses on more than one occasion. And if they didn't, I _trusted_ Niko to get his ass out of there. Once inside, I wasn't sure what we were planning. Originally, Robin was supposed to finagle his way into the facility and get us out, but that obviously wasn't happening anymore. Stupid puck.

They let me see where they took Niko; a little infirmary in the basement of the building we'd tagged. A basement that wasn't supposed to be there in a building that Ishiah told us Robin was now hostage in as well. I still wasn't sure if the overprotective peri wouldn't barge in and fuck this up. He was gold-eyed and more than ruffled after talking to his brother. Apparently, Joel sold Robin out to 'save' his brother; as long as Ish was left unscathed and unshackled he would give the Vigil all the information they needed on Castiella and Robin Goodfellow.

I stopped worrying about Ishiah when the Vigil separated me and Nik. Leaving my brother in the guard and soldiers quarters below –now wouldn't that have been a mess if we barged into the basement on a rescue mission only to find a hundred armed humans waiting. They dragged me up to the second floor at gun point and forcibly stripped me of clothes and weapons. I was actually sadder to see my Eagle drift away than my boxers. Hell, they gave me pants and a scrub smock in trade, but not a new gun.

Then they did something unthinkable. After leading me down familiar halls, which I now noticed were above ground but closed off in the center of the building, they chucked me into a room so statically charged that I knew traveling would short out my brain if attempted. That wasn't the shocking part. Nor was the room itself; second verse same as the first. Stark walls, no amenities save for a toilet bowl in one corner and a double bed that looked more like two gurneys bolted to the ground and rigged together with a double mattress slapped on top. It was the figure already tucked in that made my heart skip and my eyes dart around for the catch.

Cassie was lying on the bed, white sheets tucked around pale shoulders, except for one arm that rested on top to allow an IV to trail up and drain who knew what into her veins. There was little a could see of her skin –most of her was covered in gauze and bandage, indicating mistreatment or another prison break failure– but that which I could see was a sallow color, bruised and transparent. I could almost see her veins pumping blood from heart to head through her neck.

She didn't stir and I walked cautiously toward the bed as if I were about to run into an invisible glass wall. I wouldn't have put it past the bastards. Show me what I wanted, but not let me near. I made it to the bed without obstruction though, and touched my fingers to her lips. They were warm despite their lusterless color. My fingers followed the line of her jaw as I bent down to sit on the edge of the bed.

I knew a camera was buzzing in one corner, recording everything. Did they expect a cock fight between two Auphe or did they expect me to try and travel with her when I knew it would hurt both of us? She was in no shape to travel anyway. I inspected one of the wounds wrapped on her upper arm by tugging back to gauze and determined it was a 9mm like the others. Probably from the same type of sub-machine gun I stole when we first tried to escape. I counted three new wounds just on her arms and chest. Four on her legs, one seemed to have blasted her knee cap. She wouldn't be running for another few days. Robin had only been caught for two days and somehow I knew he'd gotten her into this mess. Either that or she panicked when she saw him imprisoned and tried to get him out. It didn't matter (though I was concerned for Robin now), what mattered was that she was too injured to go anywhere and I had to wait again.

"Cali," the name brushed her full lips like a sigh when I was prodding my fingers gently over the back of her neck to check the inhibitor there. It was gone, but the skin had healed enough for me to figure out that she'd recklessly pulled it out not long after I traveled back to my apartment. She'd been busy while I was gone.

"Hey, Cas," I whispered and tried my best to put on a smile for her. It was strained, as my nerves were pretty much tattered, but I felt a little genuine relief when her mahogany eyes fluttered open. She blinked up at me, as if determining if I was a figment of her imagination. "I'm here."

There was a slight wrinkle in her brow and without any other warning she smacked me over the side of my head. It didn't hurt, hardly close to her usual power, but it actually had me chuckle. "I know you're not happy about this, but I wasn't about to abandon you again."

Her full lips pursed and her hand returned to my jaw, only this time she stroked it then tugged at a stray piece of my black hair. I grinned as I complied with her urging to lean over, accepting her kiss without reserve. I didn't care who was watching, let them get off on whatever they wanted. If Cassie were in better health I probably would have tried to coax her into more, but there was no way I would stress her body out more than needed. Her kiss was enough, even if her scent was dulled by the bleach stench surrounding.

"You got into another fight with a semi-automatic," I observed.

"Robin," she replied, still tracing her fingers over my cheek and into my hairline. "We tried to get out, but they were ready for us. They promised me he was stable, but," she trailed off and I could see tears forming on her lashes. "He shouldn't have come. You shouldn't have come. I would have gotten out eventually."

"And how much torture would you have endured until then?"

She swallowed, averted her wet eyes, and shook her head on the pillow. "I can take it. I can endure torture, but I can't take them hurting you and Robin."

I snorted and kissed her again. "Don't lie, you want me here."

Her mouth twitched in amusement like Niko's did when he was 'laughing'. It was strange to see her so unexpressive, but being shot and strung up did that to a person. I touched a finger to the IV in her arm. "Is this for healing or hindering?" Cassie shook her head, eyes hooded; she didn't know.

I stood from the bed and checked the bag hanging from a hook over her. Most of the label was unreadable for me, but I recognized benzodiazepine and the large number next to the dosage. That was more than a dosage for anxiety or insomnia; they were drugging her to the point of immobility. Not that I blamed them. I would too, knowing the damage she could cause. I pulled out the needle as efficiently as Niko taught me. Cassie didn't even flinch as she watched me. I pressed my thumb to the blood beading where the needle left a hole and met her eyes. "We're going to get you out of here, Cassie."

"Then live happily ever after?" she teased, eyes smiling even if her lips couldn't manage. I scoffed again. We both knew how possible that was. "Help me sit up." I was hesitant; she looked so comfortable and dead tired, but when Cassie eyed me in annoyance for the pause I scooped her up under her arms and lifted her. Her head lolled against my shoulder and her arms dragged for a few inches before she lethargically wrapped them around my shoulder. She made a little sound of contentment and nuzzled into my neck.

Her scent was a little stronger this close, intoxicating me as I assumed my scent was to her. She certainly took in a deep breath to indicate as much, which made me smile. My scent usually turned people off, especially wolves. Monsters sneered at my scent, dogs pissed themselves over it and cats just didn't like me. Or at least Salome didn't like me, I wasn't sure if that had anything to do with the way I smelled.

"See?" I murmured into her tangled blond hair. "You want me here."

"I want you safe. This isn't safe, though since you're stuck here I'm going to take advantage of the distraction." Cassie lifted her head from my shoulder and coaxed my chin to face her. She kissed me deeply, to the point that my body was beginning to disagree with my earlier decision that a kiss was enough.

"Stop riling me," I chided, pulling back from her. "I feel like I'm taking advantage of an invalid." Castiella's eyebrows rose as if I'd just challenged her and, just as suddenly as when I spent the night in her bed, I was on my back with her on top of me. Only difference this time was Cassie's face contorting with pain instead of irritation. And she was clad in much less material; the Vigil really wanted everything easy access, the pricks.

"I'm no invalid," she countered. I smirked. Her lips had a little more color in them now that I'd gotten her blood pumping and her cheeks were rosy instead of pallid. I rolled with her, not as violent as I usually would have, because I knew she was hurting despite her claims. She didn't fight it, which made the motion almost more sensual than the kiss I stole once on top of her.

There was a time and a place for what we did next and didn't care that this was neither. Niko was unconscious in the basement of a top secret government laboratory. Robin was somewhere in the same riddled with probably as many bullets as Cassie. Promise and Ishiah were biting on their last shreds of will power not to come in after us and I was having the most passionate sex I'd ever had with a woman that had been hooked up to an IV only minutes before I stripped her of her clothes.

At least the guards were getting a good show. And they let us. No one barged in to separate us. No one gassed the room to drag us apart. They let us have sex; it was the first time I wanted to thank them. Unfortunately, it didn't last as long as I wanted it to –not by my fault, mind you. Cassie's flushed skin looked feverish much too quickly and I stopped even when she pleaded, "Again."

I kissed her throat, her collar bone, and took in a deep breath of her heightened woody floral scent. "I'm pained to say it, but no. You're not up for it."

"I can take more," Cassie whispered. She tangled her fingers in my hair and pulled a little harder than in play. Her legs tightened around my waist. Amazing she could do so with one knee busted and oh, it was so tempting. I smiled down at her and shook my head even if she still held a grip on my hair. "Come on," she whined.

I chuckled and pried her legs from around me as gently as I could. "Rest, then we'll see. I'm completely obliged to make you swoon for endless hours once you don't have seventeen bullet holes in you."

She pouted petulantly at me, but let me roll over beside her. I brushed my fingers through her hair as her head rested on my arm. Despite her urging to continue and the fact that we were still sweaty and more than a bit sticky (there was no way in hell we were going to use toilet water to clean up), Cassie fell asleep within a few minutes in my arms. It was a nice sensation; one I certainly wasn't used to.

I fell asleep at some point. Not sure how that happened, because I had been actively trying to stay awake. Over the years I'd learned how to pass out basically anywhere and wake up the moment a new presence approached. So how the Vigil was able to transfer me into another bed in a completely different room was beyond me. I woke without Cassie beside me, which was startling enough, then to find my bed had been changed to a single and I was bound to it just made me furious.

I strained at the ligatures, but the seemingly nylon straps were heartier than I expected. I understood why when I attempted to lift my head. Drugged. Those goddamned fucking assholes. They must have gassed the room; if I was already drifting I would have just passed out without realizing. They took me away from her.

I kicked my feet, but they barely moved an inch, shackled to the end of the bed frame. I dropped my head to the pillow and screamed out my frustration. I didn't care what they did about it, I just hoped one of those pricks came in so I could open a gate inside his tiny little heart.

I took in several deep breaths to calm myself, pissed off that the guards that took me in even stripped me of the mala beads Nik had given me. I could've used a little meditation right now. The room was charged static like the last, so traveling wasn't an option; just one of those self-satisfying violent thoughts that got me through the day.

I stared at the ceiling and tried to puzzle out what had happened. Yeah, gas in the room was the only way. I would never let them near enough to the bed, especially with Castiella beside me, to get a needle in either of us. So where was I? The room was just as small as the other with the same minimal amenities. Not that I could get to it; at least they didn't stick a catheter in me.  
>I tensed when the door hissed open, eyeing it from the corner of my eye. A woman in a lab coat strolled in, but behind her were two armed guards in black and my brother between them. My body didn't relax upon seeing him standing and looking unharmed. The fact that he was there was disturbing enough. Why were these controlling pricks giving me these assurances? Did they expect me to cooperate because of this?<p>

Niko didn't say anything, though he looked incredibly relieved. He waited patiently between the guards. The two uniforms stationed themselves on either side of the door that slid shut with a hallow bang. Niko stepped forward and to the side of my bed and without permission cut the straps fastening me to the gurney. "How come you get a knife?" I griped. Niko smiled in his own way.

"They're trying to recruit me," he replied, which made me snort. Not that it was surprising. Niko was human, a warrior, and damn hard to kill; it shocked me that the Vigil hadn't tried to recruit him when he was seven. Though I supposed having a little brother who could destroy the world deterred them. And as long as I was alive they'd never get him and if they were the reason for my death, they would follow suit in killer Buddha's revenge.

"Let me guess. They keep me safe and breathing and you work for them in exchange."  
>He didn't answer, which meant I was right. He'd never buy into that deal and they were stupid for presenting it.<p>

I rubbed at my wrists where my drug-induced nightmares had given me rope burns. When I sat up the scientist skittered back a few feet closer to the guards. Neither of them reacted, though their weapons were drawn across their chests in preparation. My head was too foggy to even glare at them. "You don't happen to know how I got here."

"They lead you here, didn't they?" Niko glanced over at the guards, gears turning violently in his head. "Samuel said they didn't tranquillize you. You went willingly."

"To the first room, yeah," I explained. "They took me to Cassie, but then I woke up here."

"You saw Castiella," Niko repeated. I saw one of the guards mouth's twitch a little bit into a sick smile and figured he knew how much of Cassie I saw. It made me reconsider that whole 'I don't care who sees' thing, because that malicious thought of opening a gate in his chest returned in a flash. He seemed to notice the look on my face, for he straightened and his features smoothed to stone apathy.

"We need to get her out of here. She's tried twice and both times suffered wounds from their arsenal."

Niko sat on the edge of my bed, his hands between his knees. "What routes did she take?"

I pressed my lips together. "I'm not sure." My brother gave me that subtle look of disappointment.

"The reunion kinda wore us out."

Nik sighed and rubbed a hand over his eyes. "You're impossible."

"She got passed the end doors," I offered. She hadn't told me that, but considering what had happened the first time we attempted to escape I knew she was smart enough to head for the hills before they tumbled down. She was also fast enough and dexterous enough to get under the door even if she was dead center in the hall. Robin was with her, but he wouldn't have slowed her down much. The puck was faster than me, unless I was going the Auphe route.

Nik could tell I was presuming, but he believed me all the same. He waited for me to go on, so I did. "Which is where they were greeted by the welcoming committee. They fired without hesitation or they wouldn't have hit either of them at all." It was all assumption, but why else would they let Niko and I talk this out right in front of them. They were confident of their guns and skills. Humans may have been the weaker species physically, but they knew very well how to utilize their strengths. It also meant that the Vigil guards wouldn't hesitate in turning that bullet spray onto Nik and me. We certainly weren't as hardy as a puck and peri. They would kill us.

Niko stayed silent as he computed all this information. He'd piece it together outside of my prison as long as they continued to let him wander. The Vigil wasn't inept; they knew very well what he was doing and that confidence would get them killed or at least have them lose their little Auphe experiments. I wasn't going to play free the pet shop here; there were plenty of monsters that probably deserved to remain indentured to them, but I wasn't one of them and neither were Cassie or Robin. I couldn't say the same for Niko or my half peri girlfriend though. Their bleeding hearts just might get us into trouble come prison break day.

"Have you seen Goodfellow?" I asked hesitantly. Considering I'd actually hugged the puck when I found out he hadn't been shot to death by a vengeful cult a few years back, my affection for him was known, but I still didn't like to show it. Another pawn for them to use against me and Cassie. Another bit of collateral damage.

"I wanted to come here first, but Dr. Benzin agreed to take me to Robin next." I nodded in acceptance. Niko paused a moment, had that look on his face that indicated he wanted to spit something out, but was over analyzing its appropriateness. I returned the look with a dubious one. We didn't have secrets and I had no filter; Niko knew he could ask me anything, because if he needed to ask it probably needed to be said. "When you were with Castiella, the Vigil made no attempt to separate you?"

I shook my head. "Nope. I'm pretty sure they gassed the room after we were done, but there were no interruptions."

Nik contemplated this as well and I could see wasn't coming to the same conclusion I had thinking they were just trying to keep me happy so I didn't go postal on them. "What are you thinking?"

"I don't know. Perhaps appeasing you? Cassie's tried to escape twice and they lost eight men the first time along with countless 'specimen'. The second attempt broke their Lieutenant General's neck. They'll endeavor to keep her staved and comfortable. Perhaps they think you're company will encourage a docile nature." He pinched the bridge of his long nose and sighed through it. "I'm sure they know Castiella can't have children. So there's no harm."

Or I could be wrong and my conclusion was more credible than I thought. Of course I had no idea if they would let me see her again. If they did, maybe we were right. If they didn't, maybe they just wanted to see some animal kingdom action.

The guards allowed Niko to stay with me for several minutes, letting us discuss our escape routes as if they were assured it was impossible. Then again, prattling on about how we'd get the hell out of Dodge in front of our wardens probably wasn't the best idea, but I'm sure Nik had thought of that. The doctor hovered around us, checking my vitals as we spoke, tried to take blood which was when I dutifully informed her that she wouldn't be able to collect that unless I was dead or unconscious. I knew they'd take me up on the second one later.

Without Niko there, time ticked by like a Tumulus day. I didn't remember that forsaken place, but there were some things that stayed with you on a cellular level. And like Tumulus, there was nothing to do or even look at. A tile floor, white reinforced walls, and a solid concrete ceiling. What would McGuyver do? Break the strip light and set a fire with the filament so they barged in to rescue me? If they deemed me an asset. But then what? I didn't know where Cassie and Robin were and it would take much too long to sniff or sense them out before the guards came for me. I had no means of contacting Niko to tell me the game was afoot.

Dinner arrived with an armed officer at one point and I debated eating it for all of twenty seconds. If they were drugging my food, so be it. If I denied them that satisfaction they would just vent the room, then I would be hungry _and _unconscious. The guard waited for me to finish; one guard for meals, that was promising. "There a dinner bell or something? So I can clean up before hand."

The guard glared at me and snatched my tray away. He quickly proceeded to the door, not wanting to spend a prolonged moment with the half Auphe. Card swipe, key pad, and thumb print. Talk about overkill; I wouldn't be surprised if the thumb print took a blood sample too. "You can forget a tip with that attitude." The door slid shut behind him and I was left alone again with a half full stomach. Meatloaf and broccoli just didn't cut it.

It turned out they didn't drug my food, but they did open the vents sometime during the night. I wasn't sleeping, lights out was apparently mandatory here, but lying on the bed in the dark I could hear the hiss and caught the scent of something like humidifier mist. I scowled but didn't fight it. They could use me while I was being a good little monster; they had no reason to get rid of me.

I stirred again when I felt a pleasant sensation over my scalp. Fingertips lovingly coasting paths through my hair. Her scent was the next thing I caught. Robin called it a Hawthorne flower and I loved it. I smirked as I tilted my head toward her warmth. "Best conjugal visits ever." My throat was thick with sleep, but the words came out clear enough that Cassie understood and chuckled.

Her lips touched my temple before I grasped consciousness enough to peel my eyes open. She looked alight with mischief. Her skin back to a more natural moon-kissed peach and her mahogany eyes were kissed with lava red. It was the kind of look that made you think you were about to be eaten alive...in a good way. "Feeling better?"

"Much," she countered. "They let me see Robin too. And your brother. He looks well. Both of them do."

"You look good too," I told her, touching my knuckles to her cheek. She smiled, such a tempting thing. I leaned forward and pushed the pillow between us down so I could kiss her. "This isn't so bad. Maybe we could convince them we don't need to be drugged to be locked in a room together." 

"Maybe," she countered, mouth parting against mine. "But I doubt it." I slipped my hands around her waist under the sheets and pulled her against me. The light wrap that she wore rubbed against my chest, coarsely, but somehow it just turned me on more. Her fingers tangled in my longish hair, which had become a small fro without a shower the last few days. The tingling sensation of her nails to my scalp changed to a wince when she pulled down. I hissed out; that was a little more pain than pleasure. The motion yanked my ear to her mouth and she nipped at the shell before whispering so softly it was almost a breath, "Robin has a plan."

Sometimes I caught on quickly to situations. This was one of those times thankfully, but that didn't mean we could stop to chat; we had to keep up appearances right? I crawled on top of her, spreading her legs and slipping between for show. Yup, for show. Castiella thought it was amusing. I kissed her healing kneecap before I settled against her, still clothed, but the warmth was enticing. Our mouths collided with her smile still in place. Her nails returned to scratch paths through my hair. I shifted to nuzzle her neck on her left side; it blocked the camera and let her tilt her chin down to my ear.

"He couldn't tell me details, but to be ready in two days."

I shifted so I could give her a skeptical look without the voyeurs seeing. That didn't stop me from untying her wrap and sliding my hands beneath. Her muscles twitched under my palms in anticipation. Her dark eyes smirked at me as her toes edge my scrub pants down over my hips. "They'll be explosions." She said it teasingly and aloud, but I knew she meant it seriously.

"Explosions, huh," I countered. How Robin had gotten a hold of explosives while locked up in here was beyond me. And at the moment I didn't really care. There were other things distracting.

The alarm went off just as Cassie's breath started picking up speed and I was well on my way to being more than uncomfortable at having to stop there. I did; despite the ache in lower regions. I shifted off of Cassie and into a more battle-ready position. Cassie did the same, fastening her wrap and sliding off the bed. I noticed a slight limp from her damaged knee, but otherwise she looked to be handling the healing process well. Better than I ever could. A dozen bullets in a little over a week and I'd be dead. Hell, I'd be dead after the second shot unless they just hit limbs.

The vents didn't open nor did the door. Apparently, they decided flamethrowers were a bit of an overreaction. We both stood silent next to one another. Ears perked to listen to the boot clomps and rattling of weapons beyond the doors. No one came to ours. Soon the halls were silent too, save for the occasional wail of aggravation from one of our prison mates.

Cassie threaded her fingers in mine and squeezed. I turned my attention to her. Tried to read her resolute expression. Maybe she was thinking the same as I was. Robin Goodfellow was breaking loose. The king of the lock pick, the trickster Houdini; if anyone could get out of Preternatural Alcatraz it was a puck. So he didn't have explosives, but he could get some. And two days was certainly enough to get some. He knew the layout, knew the cameras, had sixty or so key cards by now and I wouldn't put it past him to steal an eye or two for those retinal scans. The puck had survived this long and I knew he wasn't full of good intentions.

Several minutes went by and the other sound made was the camera inside our room repositioning. Cassie and I met its one-eyed gaze, still holding hands and probably still looking confused. We had nothing to do with this, surely.

Cassie guided me back to the bed and we sat. Her hands immediately went to her knee to massage it. "What do you think?"

I gave the camera a sidelong glance, wondering if I should answer her question candidly or if I needed to keep some cards up my sleeve. Of course, the Vigil couldn't do much even if they did find out what we suspected. And they thought we were locked up under their control for good. "I think we have another friend on the outside."

Castiella nodded, then cringed when working out a kink in her knee brought obvious pain to her arm, which was still wrapped in light gauze. I sighed and slipped one arm behind her knees, lifting. The abrupt motion dropped her to her back on the bed. She snickered, giving me a coy smile. "Are we picking up where we left off?"

"Eventually," I hummed. I laid her legs across my thighs and slid my palm underneath her injured one. She tensed in pain, then relaxed as my fingers dug into the knots that lined her calf muscles. I knew it hurt, crunching through the tension, but she watched me with a content expression all the same.

"So when we get out of this mess how adverse are you to the concept of waking up with me next to you every now and then?" The question, as innocent as it was, made me freeze. My hands wrapped around her leg just above her knee. I stared down at the pale skin of her thigh, at the healing pink reminders of the bullets she took for me.

It wasn't like she was asking to spend the rest of our lives together. She wasn't asking to move in or demanding a ring. All she was asking for was a relationship; something I never thought I'd have. George was a crush never allowed to grow to something more, Delilah was a sex friend without trust or love, and I didn't even remember the name of the nymph I lost my virginity to. I never had to think about commitment because the only thing ever committed to me was death.

All my life it'd just been me and Niko, the brothers Leandros. We had no time and no patience for anyone else. And then we stopped running, because I was tired of running and tired of Niko sacrificing everything for his half-monster little brother. We had jobs here, an apartment I kinda liked, friends that were more like family than my own blood (sans Niko, of course). So why did making plans for the future turn me into a deer in the headlights of an oncoming semi?

I jolted when Cassie's legs slid gracefully from my lap, curling back as she sat up on the bed. "I guess that was a little forward of me. I didn't mean anything serious by it. I like you and I like what we have. It's fun," she gave a light shrug, mahogany eyes searching for mine. I could tell, but couldn't bring myself to meet her gaze. "I just didn't want to lose this."

"Why did you leave me that note when you left that morning?" I blurted out. I gathered the courage to look her in the eye just in time to watch her cheeks flare cherry pink. I stared for a moment, unable to contain the smile tugging at my mouth. I'd never seen her that embarrassed. The color even reached her ears from what I could see around her dreaded dark blond hair. "Was that nothing serious too?"

Cassie pressed her full lips together, shoulders sagging in defeat. "It was silly and spur of the moment. I wrote that because I wanted you to know that despite your mother having a horrible sense of humor you aren't a monster and you will continually be loved for who you are."

"Oh, that's all?" I teased with lifted eyebrows. Cassie punched at my arm. She was still lagging in speed so I easily caught her wrist and tugged her off balance. It was one of those cheesy love story montage moves, but it worked and honestly I just wanted her lips against mine again. "This scares me," I admitted. Her brow knitted in confusion, but she didn't let me continue. She shifted onto her knees, disregarding any pain she was more than likely in, and pulled our mouths together again by the nape of my neck. Her nails dug just slightly into my skin. Her lips were a pink as her cheeks as been when we finally parted.

"Sorry, you can continue with what you were about to say now," Cassie whispered. I knocked my forehead against hers and chuckled. She'd stopped me just for that kiss, she'd followed me when everyone told her not to, she slept with me after I told her my darkest thoughts –the ones that proved even if I wasn't a total monster, I wasn't far off.

"I just don't get why me. I'm not the greatest catch, actually I'm closer to a disaster, so why? Is it because I'm half Auphe?" She remained on her knees, but sat back. She didn't answer. "If I wasn't half Auphe this would have never happened."

"Of course not," Cassie answered simply. "You wouldn't be who you are without that part of you. I would never have met you. This would never have happened. Your life would have been completely different and maybe it would have been better, but would you have been this strong? Would you have been this smart, witty, dangerous? You wouldn't be Caliban and because of that everyone you know wouldn't be who they are today."

It was amazing how she could say it so matter-of-fact. I still wasn't convinced that the world wouldn't be better off without Caliban Leandros. I was just starting to believe that maybe my brother was happier with me than without. And maybe that's what she was saying. Robin would have never gotten the guts to settle into monogamy if Niko and I hadn't locked his wayward feet down long enough for him to realize his feelings for Ishiah. Niko would have never met Promise if my homicidal relatives hadn't cornered us in New York and both of them benefited from that match made in Zen.

And who was to say that the world would be better off? If it wasn't me, the Auphe would have found another successful experiment that Darkling could possess and without me in danger, Niko and Robin would have never stopped the sorry schmuck in my place. The world would have been taken over by the Auphe when they made the human race extinct. Suloyak would have destroyed the world if I hadn't opened a gate inside him. Sawney would have continued slaughtering the residence of New York if I hadn't chased down the fast little bastard with traveling and torched his ass with a flamethrower and acid. There were others, but my head was reeling a little bit and I could remember all my saintly acts at the moment.

Cassie's fingers drifted over my cheek, bringing me back. "I like you, Caliban. Just the way you are." She gave a cute half shrug and showed that tempting smile. "Of course, we might have to work on the cleanliness of your room, but otherwise."

"Not at all," I replied. It wasn't the answer she expected, so I reiterated. "I'm not at all adverse to the idea of waking up beside you." Her smile widened. Without another word she pulled me down on top of her and we eagerly picked up where we left off. It still unnerved me a little, how much I liked Castiella, how different it felt having sex with her. It was just as Ham had told me that night in the diner. Breathtaking, every sensation mind-blowing. Maybe it was because we were both half Auphe, but if this was my consolation for losing my traveling abilities I didn't think I cared much anymore. Fuck, it was good. Good enough that neither of us stopped even as the filmy white mist engulfed the room again.

Damned asshole humans.


	16. Chapter 16 Robin

**Chapter Sixteen**

**Robin**

It was pure splendor to remove the filth from my body. Poly-blend and sterilized spray washes were no way to treat such a work of art. I leaned into the shower spray and let it pelt over my face and shoulders, soaking my curls which were more tangled and damaged than they had even been when Cassie and I were locked away in the hull of the Flying Dutchman. Not a specter ship of lore, but merely a stolen warship piloted by a band of aggressive pirates in desperate need of cultural and etiquette lessons. Of course, it nearly became a ghost ship after the captain tried to get a taste of Cassie without her permission.

My brow knitted under the water. I split out the access along with the bitter taste in my mouth. Every time I was shackled to or wallowing in a mess made by yours truly, Castiella was there. Saving my pert ass from flames of my own devices. She never let me down. Even the periods where she had disappeared on me. When I thought for sure I was alone, Cassie appeared in all her glory and pulled me out. Remained with me during the fallout or the rebuild and was off again once she knew I was safe.

There were even times with I thought her dead that I felt her presence or caught the lingering scent of Hawthorne that made me so nostalgic that sleep left me for days. She watched over me, somehow, while she was in the greatest danger from the Auphe. While she took on the unbearable task of ending the first evil of this world she was still my guardian angel. I was convinced she saved me from that lynch mob in Spain and the Evati when their remaining pack tracked me down in Nice, hungry for my blood. And how did I repay her? I leave her in that wretched place, while I return to my lover's arms and to the comfort of a warm shower.

I had a plan. A plan so ridiculous and haphazard that even Caliban would be proud, but I still left her and Cal and it sat like the Rosetta stone in my stomach. I raked my fingers through my hair, then punched the side of the shower. The tile cracked and I cringed, shaking my hand with the ache.

It wasn't marble walled with a spigot that could thunder down in deep tissue massage or as softly as a light rain. It wasn't an expansive stall of crisp white and grays with a rust resistant frame and barely fogged over glass. It wasn't my shower, hardly. I would never allow a plastic liner in my facilities. I gingerly ran my fingers over the crack in the tile and determined a little high end glue would fix it up well enough. That didn't stop the grumpy voice beyond the plastic liner from making me flinch.

"Robin?" It was a tone of concern. For now.

"I'm fine," I assured Ishiah. His shower, his apartment. I couldn't return to mine. I was a fugitive of the Vigil now; funny how I hadn't really done more than punch an insolent ape in the face to get there. The human organization knew where I lived, probably knew where Ishiah lived, but considering the deal Joel had made they would wait for me to separate from Ishiah before they struck. I was safe here. Safe to plan out the danger to come.

I shook out my hair once out from under the spray and turned off the water. I was clean enough, even if my skin wasn't as flawless as it once was. Pink tissue rippled on my shoulders and back from the bullets that sunk into flesh. I was a little amazed I survived, but I knew most of that had to do with Cassie and a haphazard gate or two; the Vigil healers were adequate enough, but I still sneered at the bang up cosmetic job they did on the aftermath of their attack.

Sliding back the sour-smelling curtain (not that Ishiah didn't keep an impeccably clean home, but wet plastic attracted mildew like a Cal attracted trouble) to find Ishiah waiting for me. Arms crossed over his broad chest, long hair pulled back into a war-ready ponytail, and a look in his blue-gray eyes that was both torrid and captious.

He didn't toss a towel at me as he usually did, complaining about his neighbors in the building across the way not being permitted to seeing me bare. Or was it not being subjected to? Ishiah always did have a strange perspective on the naked flesh. Today he wrapped the towel around my shoulder, rubbing the folds over my hair a few times before he pulled me against him and kissed me.

I made a little sound of surprise, not expecting such a passionate greeting. But rolling with the punches, or any unexpected situation for that matter, was a puck specialty. I ran my hands up his shirt front and expertly began unbuttoning. Either he didn't notice or didn't care, even as my fingers flitted over his flesh beneath the fabric. I determined it was didn't care, when he basically hoisted me up and carried me out to the bedroom. I was by no means a small man, but Ishiah could probably bench press ten of me without breaking a sweat.

We did break a sweat though, not as intense a work out as I would have liked, but we had work to do and when Ishiah realized he had left the blinds on the balcony open in broad daylight the mood was lost. I sat on the bed with the pillows pressed against my aching back. I didn't understand how Ishiah could sleep well without down pillows, but then maybe the scent of another foul irritated. He never seemed to mind at my apartment; perhaps it was merely a materialistic constraint.

Ishiah was drawing the thick curtains over the sunlight, standing in his natural state and hiding only his wings from view. I held one of his feathers between my fingers, dusting it over my collarbone idly. "I have to contact Sal."

He faced away from me, but I knew there was a scowl there. Not that he felt threatened by my old contacts, but this one in particular was a little more than eccentric. Of course, I believed the official term was sociopathic. "Promise arrived in Asiago last night. She'll be speaking with Salamandier in person."

I frowned. Shocked that not only could Ishiah read my mind, but that Promise would chance sunlight exposure by flying to the Venetian Prealps even if it was planned through a red eye flight. Obviously she wanted Niko and Cal home as much as I wanted all my friends safe. "She doesn't know him, are you sure that's a good idea?"

"We'll be using some communications program on your laptop," Ishiah answered. He strolled over to his coffee table, where said laptop rested, and pulled open the screen. "I may need your help configuring it. I'm unfamiliar with this program, but Promise set it up before she left."

I snorted upon seeing the site that flickered to color when the computer woke from hibernation. "We're Skypeing Salamandier?" I suppose it made sense. He did enjoy technology; no surprise, considering he was born from a misfiring chemistry experiment –or alchemy, as it was back then. Ishiah gave me a look that asked if that was inadvisable and I shrugged in acceptance.

It would save time. Sal didn't like leaving the Alps and I didn't have the time to fly out to him. "When?"

Ishiah returned to the bed, I hoped to join me, but he only untangled his pants from the sheets and pulled them on. "In an hour."

I lifted my eyebrows in surprise. Glancing over that the bedside clock it read seven am, which would mean Promise was attending this meeting at two in the afternoon time zones permitting. For her sake, I hoped it was overcast. She may not spontaneously combust upon exposure, but I had seen a vampire receive a terrible burn when a pub fight broke through a blacked out window in Ireland once. And I had seen the Teutonic Knights use sunlight as a form of torture to vampires that threatened and harmed villages under their care and protection.

I didn't comment on her choices. She loved Niko, I wouldn't deny that. And she adored Caliban like he was already her little brother-in-law, which I found just a tad presumptuous. Regardless, she was aiding them. And her and Ishiah's proactive decisions might have saved my scattered shambles of a plan.

"You may want to shower again," Ishiah snickered, eyeing my state of being. I loved it when that rare sound rumbled up his throat. I caught his wrist before he could back away from the bed completely and pulled him down to the mattress. It was a chronic battle for power between the two of us. I certainly didn't mind being submissive, but constant domination wouldn't be tolerated. I bit at his bottom lip as I parted from the stolen kiss and gave him a wink.

"Join me?" I hardly expected him to take me up on my offer, so when he smirked and departed from the bed, my only surprise was him heading for the bathroom. I clamored off the mattress, not about to let his opportunity got to waste. Unfortunately, it was exceedingly difficult to keep the puck experience down to an hour, so we were a bit late strolling out of the bathroom and (having left the computer logged on) Promise's scowl greeted me from the screen.

"_Buongiorno, Senoria Nottinger. Mi sei mancato molto_." Her lavender eyes darkened and her porcelain features seemed pinched with anger. They were often like that around me; our relationship was one of civil tolerance at best.

"I'm glad you found time to relax while our friends are in danger. Your priorities are always so unique." The biting words usually slid off my skin like a thin lotion, but my smile dropping was clue enough that she had cut me this time.

"Thank you for taking the initiative, Promise. You saved us a lot of time by going to Italy first." There was no sarcasm, no wit or coyness to my tone. I didn't want to fight. Our family was locked away being cut, drugged, and experimented on. I was a puck and even I felt violated by some of the 'tests' they administered on me. I could only imagine the tortures Cassie and Cal were enduring.

Promise's pale face tilted to one side and I could see a red rash brushing over one cheekbone. It wasn't intentional, I knew. The gesture was to emphasize her confusion at my niceties, not to show me she had been injured. Promise wasn't that sort of creature. She was a predator; if anything, she would hide those injuries. I noticed her hand covering the computer mouse to the left of the screen was blistered. Her trip had not gone off without a hitch or two. I didn't call attention to it, just as she didn't call attention to the pink scars on my shoulders and chest from the bullets I'd eaten trying to escape with Castiella.

Ishiah draped a pair of pants over my shoulder and I glanced down realizing I hadn't bothered with clothes. No wonder Promise was so cross. I gave her my best charming grin and winked. "Excuse me." Sparing her anymore deep-seeded feelings of longing, I slipped out of view from the computer and pulled on the pants. They were mine, at least, breathable gray linen in a soft weave. My skin thanked Ishiah for the consideration.

"We're you able to make contact with Salamandier?" Ishiah asked, taking the helm at the computer. He sat at the simple love seat across from the coffee table, leaning back in a manner that attempted to exude calm, but failed my astute observation.

"I'm here, I'm here," a raspy voice confirmed with excitement. I slid into the seat next to Ishiah in time to watch Sal peer over Promise's shoulder. He was an interesting creature. Dark rubbery skin covered his entire form of sinewy limbs and too lean muscle. There were ridges that crowned his forehead and led down his back to his thick tail and on them were the spotted markings of the golden Alpine salamander he was said to have been born from. No one knew the tale in accuracy, only that he was created from an explosion that killed all humans involved. Maybe his genetics were meshed with that of the experimenters, giving him the ability to stand on human shaped legs and the use of opposable thumbs.

I knew him when he was assisting Aristotle, who thought of Sal as a creature of elemental fire. Sal had a knack for explosives as well as being well versed in any and all technology of the progressive world. Surprising he could even get a signal in the Prealps wilderness. His gold ringed eyes flickered over to me and a smile broke out on his flat face, revealing a set of misshapen teeth vaguely resembling that of a frontier man who had never seen a dentist in his life. "Goodfellow! I haven't seen you in a century or more!" Oh, brilliant, he was in a good mood.

"_Buongiorno_, Sal," I greeted. "Sorry, I haven't kept in touch."

"I hear you're on another adventure." His excitement was clear. He didn't see much action in the mountains and, even if he adored my stories, he never liked the adrenaline of the front line. He did, however, love a good firework show. "How can I assist?"

"I'm so glad you asked," I grinned. I explained everything to him. Being so connected to the world wide web and other avenues less prominent and more secretive, he might have been able to give us more insight on the previously innocuous Vigil organization. He listened to my story in a rolling chair next to Promise, a rubbery black hand to his non-existent chin and onyx sclera showing wide around his gold irises.

By the time I was done an hour had passed. Ishiah and Promise both tried their best to reel in my storytelling, but Sal goaded me on at every opportunity, enjoyed it so. We did have a time limit, I had to remind myself. "Oh, another thing," I reached over the sofa to snatch up the uniform I had pilfered on my great escape. And what a great escape it'd been. It took me a day or two to pick the perfect guard; they seemed to think surrounding me with male guards would lessen my ability to manipulate. Hah. When one guard became a noticeable regular the rest was a cakewalk.

It had been a while since I'd hogtied someone, but like a riding a bike it came naturally. I managed to slip out of the room in the man's uniform. The brimmed Lieutenant's hat shaded my features from the cameras. That was the second commanding officer we had taken out and if everything went as I thought it would (as it usually did with Cal involved: horribly wrong, but still successful) it wouldn't be the last. I got through the overhead door without the alarm going off. Took the back way, where the smaller control rooms were. And by sheer luck, ducked through the end door as another officer was entering.

He stared at me for a moment in shock, just enough for me to knock him out and strip him of all his little gadgets, including a nice Colt 45 that Cal was going to adore; apparent it was the weapon of choice among the higher ranks in the Vigil. The rest was all running and dodging bullets, but I talked it up a bit to Sal. Ishiah had been at the Starbucks across the street, the adorable stalker that he was, and I was in the air and soaring back to his apartment before I knew my feet had left the ground.

I dropped the uniform jacket on my lap to dig through the pockets. "So I've got this nifty little smart phone here. What do you think you can get from this?"

Salamandier flashed those unfortunate teeth again and feigned cracking his knuckles. "Let's find out, shall we? Call this number." He rattled off the series and I dialed them into the phone. I just tossed it onto the coffee table and let it ring; Sal would handle the rest. I watched him squint at another terminal off screen, typing furiously. I panned my gaze over to Promise.

The ice queen looked as distraught as when her daughter went homicidal on us and almost destroyed her relationship with Niko for good. Her lavender eyes were downcast and she fiddled with the thin string of silver and rubies around her neck. "He's doing fine, Promise."

She blinked up at me and pursed her lips. "You saw him?"

"It was more them letting Niko see us. As far as I know he's seen Cassie and Cal too. They're keeping those two alive for a damned good reason, though I don't know what. They aren't going to hurt them if they can help it. And Niko," I snorted and shook my head. "They're trying to recruit him."

"Which means he's with the humans." At first it just seemed like a statement of the obvious, made important only by firm emphasis. Then I realized the implication. We would have to be careful. Niko had the sword skills of Miyamoto Mushashi, the reflexes of a rabbit on speed, and the luck of Tyche, but nothing would save him if he got caught in the middle of the firefight we were setting up. "Does he know your plan?"

"Some of it," considering it was still in the planning stages when I spoke to him.

"Jackpot!" Sal cried out and shot his hands in the air like he just won the lottery. He pointed a black nail-less finger in my direction and attempted a wink. It was only slightly disturbing when his second lid flickered over his eye horizontally before the humanoid eyelid snapped down. "You picked a good one Goodfellow. This guy's cell is locked in to the main network for these bastards. I've got everything from blue print and remote key access to live feed of their digital video system. They thought they blocked the phone after you stole it, but little did they know I'm the master of finding trap doors."

I saw Promise's lips gape just slightly at Sal's success, but I knew I was a bit dumbfounded as well. Ishiah cleared his throat beside me to get our attention. "With all that is it necessary to set the explosives?" I offered him a consoling smile and squeezed his knee. He hadn't been keen on the death of all those humans that got in our way. Partially because peris were fond of the humans and partially because he didn't want the other chapters of the Vigil after us out of pure rage and vengeance. "It just seems that we might be able to condense the death count to a minimum by utilizing the remote key access and a forward warning from the live feeds."

"Ish, I'm not too sure I'm up for another round of dodge the machine gun spray. I'm lucky I survived the first one," I murmured. Though his hopefulness gave me an idea. "Hey, Sal, can you reverse the feed? Loop the video so they just see a blank hall and not us strolling in?"

"I liked that movie," Sal responded, still playing with the new toy I'd given him.

"What movie?"

"The fifteen or so movies where that ridiculous idea actually worked."

I almost laughed. "Salamandier, well played. I'm guessing it's impossible then."

"Impossible, no. Feasible is the problem," Sal leaned forward to see the out of sight terminal. "These guys patrol the halls often. Even if I loop the video someone monitoring will notice the guards aren't walking through and realize something is wrong. Plus if they try to zoom in on any of the cameras or change an angle it will be overridden by my controls and they'll notice that, if I'm not matching the controls precisely. In a perfect world it would work, in the real world it would work for about twenty seconds."

"That could suffice." Twenty seconds to get in. C4 to get out. "Now, Sal." I leaned forward and waited for him to cast those black and gold eyes on me. "What presents can you give Promise to take home with her?"

Plotting the infiltration of the Vigil building took another hour on Skype with Salamandier and Promise, but it was more beneficial than I could have hoped. I didn't like admitting when someone could do something better than me, but Sal was truly the king of all things fire and motherboard. He stocked Promise up with the most simplistic bombs and triggers that I believed it was possible she might be able to charm her way through customs even if she hadn't been taking her own jet. In the end Sal signed off with a brilliant grin and a forced promise that I'd call him with all the crazy details once our adventure was complete. If we survived was the usual condition.

"Tomorrow," Ishiah whispered in my ear once I shut the laptop screen. His arm slipped behind me on the couch, touching the small of my back. I leaned my forehead to his shoulder. I was tired and stressed, but never been happier with my decisions of monogamy. Ishiah knew me better than most, better than I probably assumed. He knew the fear in my head. Probably felt it in my body when he pressed his lips to my temple.

I didn't want to lose another friend, let alone the only ones I had in this world right now.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow we would get them out. We would penetrate their defenses through the access Ishiah found beneath the Starbucks; I though he was just grabbing a coffee while he stalked me. As far as he could tell it led to the basement, meaning great stealth and caution had to be used. The soldiers slept there. Ish, as deliciously built as he was, wouldn't be the prime choice for the limited space of the barrack halls. It was a job for playful pucks and slippery vampires. And with Niko's life in the balance as well as Cal and Cassie's I knew Promise and I could be professional enough not to kill one another until after we were all safe. After that her dignity was fair game. 

I spent the night in restless sleep; not my plan but Ishiah insisted, teasing me with threats of shackle ropes to the bedposts. And morning came too soon with a knock on the apartment door that Ishiah answered. Promise entered with a dark umbrella in hand and a scowl on her pretty face upon seeing me ruffled and naked amongst tangled sheets. I did give her credit for not persecuting Ishiah's living quarters as I did when first beholding them.

"I sleep naked," I told her grumpily, deciding I didn't need to explain more than that.

She lifted one perfect eyebrow, but didn't respond. Ishiah took the umbrella after she wrapped it closed, then slipped her sable-blue cloak from her shoulders. Her skin had mostly healed, but there was still a little angry pink blotches over the caps of her shoulders where the Alexander Wang boat neck exposed them. I had to admit she looked good. The dress was loose enough for movement and the leggings and Aldo Brue boots made for ass-kicking. For all her flaws the vamp did have fabulous fashion sense.

"Would you like to get ready or shall we wait for breakfast in bed?"

I rolled my eyes and tossed the sheets aside. Promise didn't both looking away, but she also had the great will power not to let her eyes rover over my physique. I went into the bathroom while Promise and Ishiah greeted each other with the utmost civility and propriety. I leaned against the sink to gather my sleep-idled thoughts and cringed when I looked in the mirror. Nothing could ever be done to destroy my exceedingly handsome face, but I certainly didn't look my best. My hair was beyond bed-head tousled and there were creases on my cheek and jaw from the sheets.

I sighed and bend over the sink to wash my face. I needed to shave as well; if I was going to perish on this crazy endeavor I was at least going to be properly groomed. I took my time too. Waking up in the shower while I washed up with my own product (Ishiah wasn't too thrilled that I took up most of his medicine cabinet) and shaving as my hair air dried a little. I left the door open at that point to allow the humid fog to lift from the glass. It also let me hear what my lover and Promise were chatting about.

"I realize this, Promise, but I assure you he is fit to embark in this." I scowled and nearly nicked my jaw with the old-fashion blade when the muscles there tensed. Faith that Promise and I could set aside our differences for this rescue mission disappeared with deep irritation. I finished scrapping the unsightly scruff from my chin and washed up with an ear to their conversation.

Promise was a master at speaking in tones both soft enough to be out of range as well as in a mid-tone that made it completely indecipherable. I could hear Ishiah, despite my lover's attempt to speak softly. His voice rumble too low to be unnoticed. "He's fully capable. Regardless of his stress."

Cleaning up, I left the water running for a moment so I could eavesdrop from the threshold. I knew they would stop talking the moment I walked out of the bathroom. "I'm not questioning his skills, Ishiah." Promise's voice fell to such a steady hum that the rush of the faucet covered her next words, then, "I'm well aware that Robin can handle himself in nearly any situation. Perhaps he is not always handling himself in the proper decorum..." Another string of incomprehensible words. I gave up and turned off the faucet. "He's not himself."

"He's concerned for his friends."

"And I'm not? That doesn't meant I will make a rash decision that could endanger them."

I paused for a moment, wondering just how out of sorts I looked. In the mirror the handsome puck before me was as presentable as usual, but I supposed there were still rings under my evergreen eyes. Losing Cassie again. Losing Caliban and Niko, they were things in the back of my head that I refused to acknowledge. But they were there and they were ruining my beauty sleep.

"He's not going to make a rash decision," Ishiah defended for me.

"Planting seventeen bombs around a human facility isn't a rash decision?"

I stepped out of the bathroom, which in his apartment, was about three feet from where they were standing. Both looked up at my entrance, not that I wasn't used to that kind of reaction. I offered them a cocky smirk and straightened the collar of my shirt. "Actually, only four are considered bombs. Five are lesser sticks of pen dynamite, which will only be sufficient in exploding a computer server, not a building. Along with four small grenades and four flash bombs, I think we are well-equipped and prepared, but if you consider that rash I respect that." I tilted my head to one side and focused a tense smile on Promise. "Then again, I'm sure you've never dealt with a war before, so perhaps this is out of your depth of knowledge."

"Robin," Ishiah snapped, but not before Promise could shove him aside and step up in front of me with a haughty lift in her porcelain chin.

"Do _not _assume you know what has transpired in my life. I've been through wars, just as surely as you've run from them."

"Exactly," I cut in before she could prattle on. "I run. From danger from fear from everything. That's how I survive. So this right here, the fact that I'm risking my life for these people _again,_ should give you some indication that I am not, under any circumstance, going to let them die on me."

I glared down at her, jaw clenched and she glowered back. Her lavender eyes were dark as they flickered to each of mine. Then with a dainty sigh, she lifted hand to offer it to me. "Truce. Our arguing will only make that endeavor more difficult."

I took her hand eagerly. Time was of the essence after all.


	17. Chapter 17 Cal

**Chapter Seventeen**

**CAL**

Evidently, the appeasement period was over. Was I shocked? Hardly. Said it before: Good things in my life never remained. I woke up in my personal cell, alone and left with nothing to do but pace the six foot width of the prison. I could still smell her on me as well as my own stench; damn, did I need a shower.

There was no breakfast or lunch for me, which made my stalking the perimeter all that more aggressive. I was hungry, cranky, and a little terrified for what was to come. Plus I couldn't figure out if two days meant today. Time was a little wonky when you didn't have a watch or a window. All I knew was that I was fucking hungry and I hadn't seen Cassie or my brother in at least twenty four hours.

I kicked at the leg of my bed, which only served to jolt the nerves in my foot all the way up to my kneecap. Damn it, the least they could have given me a book or something. It was no longer a surprise to me that their experiments went loony in here and further encouraged my desire to leave them in here. Or maybe kill them. I certainly didn't want a half-crazed werewolf or Nian stampeding through my city. A pity kill would be much better. Of course, I would have to convince Niko of this and I didn't know if by explosions Robin meant to destroy the entire building.

I plopped back down on my springy mattress and propped my ankles up on the metal frame at the end. They hadn't tied me up or even bothered to influence with drugs, but they also were ignoring me. It was almost worse that way. Were they trying to make me as crazy as the others? With just a white walled cell and the soft howls and cries of other inmates to keep me entertained it wouldn't be long for it.

Cassie. Think about Cassie. A small smile tugged at my lips as I pillowed my arms behind my head. I thought about her a lot in the past hours. Some of it resulted in a different kind of show for the cameras, which I was sure they didn't appreciate as much, but most of it was contemplation and an ache to see her. It was strange. I thought about her more than escape and more than the trouble I'd gotten my brother into. It had been me and Nik for so long and suddenly we had a family. Suddenly after twenty-three years of only having a brother, I had a maternal sister-in-law who chided me with a look when I didn't take care of myself, a crazy uncle that tried to teach me _way_ too much about sex and felonies, another uncle who got me a job and watched out for me even if he tried to hide the concern, and now a girlfriend. I had a girlfriend. An honest to God girlfriend.

We'd gone on dates (well, _a_ date), spend a night talking 'til morning (among other activities), shared our deepest secrets, and had a 'talk' or two about our relationship. All this and I'd fought with her less times than I had with both George and Delilah, granted I'd also known her for a lot less time, but that just made it all the more surreal. I liked her, a _lot_. More than I though possible for an antisocial dick like me. I loved Nik by default as well as for who he was and what he did for me. I could admit to holding affection for Promise and Robin and even Ishiah on some level, but admitting I loved them...it made my stomach churn with nerves. It was the same with Castiella. Thinking of her smile and her jokes, her warmth and her mouth to mine, it made me as giddy as I got when I traveled. Okay, maybe not that giddy; if you asked Robin and Niko I nearly shat rainbows when I traveled, before Rafferty clipped my gating wings. But it was a close thing. I don't think I ever smiled as much in my life as I did with Cassie at my side. And she got Niko to laugh aloud...

I could see her curled up next to me in bed, most likely awake before me. I could even see her watching me sleep and honestly it didn't feel as creepy as it probably should. I couldn't wait to see if she managed to make a breakfast that both satisfied my love of everything high in cholesterol as well as my health nut brother which she boasted she could. I could see her practicing katas with Niko in the living room and dragging me out for a run literally where Niko normally had to threaten. I could see her saving me from myself. Teaching me how to be...me, a better me.

If I saw Rafferty ever again I was pretty confident that I could take off the trigger in my head. I trusted Cassie enough that if she couldn't stop me from going psycho after a few gates, she would kill me before I hurt my family and friends. Well, maybe she wouldn't kill me, but she could certainly knock me out a lot quicker than even Niko could. And I wanted her there. I wanted her there for every moment I lost it or nearly lost it. Because she could be the thing that saved my brother from me. Because, with Niko, she could bring me back so much faster.

I jerked in surprise when the heavy door hissed and rolled open slowly. I didn't move from the bed, as I peered out of the bottoms of my eyes. The guard that entered was burlier than the ones before. Clad in all black and combat boots, he looked a little more intimidating as well. Of course, that might have had something to with the M16 held across his chest. The dark-skinned asshole stepped to the side of the door, eyeing me like I was about to sell his daughter into prostitution. Moving his girth from the threshold let me see the much more slender frame of my brother behind him.

I still didn't move from the bed, meeting the Incredible Hulk's vicious glare and hoping I upped the ante a little. Niko walked around him and smacked my bare feet off the metal frame like he would our coffee table back home. It was comforting. As was the katana sheath at his side; the Vigil were crazy to arm him, but I wasn't complaining.

"I'm hungry," I complained more to the guard than my brother. The jerk didn't even respond, not that I expected him to.

Niko shot a glance over at the human, then back at me. "I'll see what I can do," he promised. I offered a lopsided smile and sat up on the bed so Niko could sit down beside me. He seemed tense, which made me assume that today was the day. "Otherwise, how are you?"

I paused to contemplate that. I knew he just meant to ask if I was physically all right, but this place was making me stir crazy on top of regular crazy. "I'm stuck in a box where the in thing is tile counting, how do you think I am?"

"You brought this on yourself," Niko argued. His tone was firm. Obviously, he didn't like the fact that we were here because of a girl.

I pressed my lips together, raking my hands through my mass of black hair. "Nik, are you in love with Promise?" I didn't think he was, but he was certainly fond of her. Not sure he would risk my life to save her, but I was some kind of special in that aspect. And maybe he would. I would be by his side if he'd been the one to start this insane rescue mission.

Nik was staring at me; I could see from the corner of my eye, but I didn't want to meet that shocked and confused look head on. "Why do you ask?"

"I don't know. Curious."

"Cal."

God damn that tone. It was worse than the 'spill all' look. No secrets between the Leandros brothers, no matter how personal. "Just answer the question."

Niko took in a deep breath and let it out through his long nose. He leaned his elbows to his knees. "There isn't a simple answer. I enjoy her company. I hold great affection for her, which in many opinions would be considered love, but to proclaim I'm in love with her seems supercilious."

I glared. "More than half of my sleep has been drug induced. Translation, please."

I saw a small smile twitch at Niko's mouth. "I like Promise. I can see us remaining successful at our relationship for a long while. We're well matched, but one day I will die and she won't. I'm not sure I want to commit to such a deep emotion with that in mind."

Listening to him, I realized a few things. One, my brother over-thought this completely. Two, I decided that was the stupidest thing I'd ever heard. If we kept curbing our emotions because of what might happen, we'd no longer be living. And while I was an advocate of lounging in front of the television more than strictly healthy, being numb to my surroundings was too much. So I said as much. "That's stupid." Plus I didn't want to think about my brother dying.

Niko closed his eyes for a moment. Not hurt, but more a gesture for gathering patience. "Why do you ask?" he repeated.

"I'm pretty sure I'm in love with Cassie." There, said it. It didn't hurt half as much as I thought it would, but my chest still burned with terror as the words left my mouth.

There was a slow movement in the muscles around Niko's mouth. It took a little while for it to become a smile, but when it did it was almost as wide as I'd ever seen it. "I'm glad to here we aren't stuck in his mess due to just your raging hormones." I bared my teeth and stood from the bed to start pacing. Niko watched me in amusement. "Honestly, Cal, I'm glad."

"Well, I'm fucking terrified."

Niko laughed. A soft sound, but it was there. "You always could admit defeat easier than I could." I scowled again, wishing I had something to throw at him. Damn it, I didn't even have a shoe.

"You're an asshole." The guard stepped back into the threshold of the door, clearing his throat to indicate that it was time for Niko to leave. My brother's smile faded at that and he pushed off the bed.

"Well, despite that I'll try and see if I can get you something to eat," he sighed. The guard went about the routine for opening the door, watching me like a hawk the entire time. I just stood with my arms crossed, attempting a contemptuous glower. It promptly dropped when I did to the floor. I cringed at the twinge in my arm when I landed on it, my ears ringing from the loud bang that had me fallen, but my concern was more for the blaring wail of the alarm overhead and Niko dragging me up from off my knees.

Another explosion rocked the building as soon as we got out of the room; Hulk had opened it before Niko clobbered him over the head with who knew what. My guess was the hilt of the katana in his hand. He slid to a halt in the corridor against the opposite wall with me beside him. It was a first for him to be thrown off balance too, but those were some damned high end bombs Robin had gotten his hands on.

The ceiling above us opened up into a rain storm as the sprinklers poured down and Niko took off down the hall without regard. "Cassie!" I snapped at him. I wasn't about to flee from this place without her. He didn't pay me any mind though, sprinting down the hall toward the heavy door rolling down at the end. I grimaced and vaulted after him. The term bros before hoes never hurt so badly.

Niko slid on his knees under the door with an impressive spray of water and I slammed my fist into the metal as it lowered the last six inches, trapping me in the corridor. Oh, hell no. I traveled without really thinking about the possibility of getting stuck inside the door. Not thinking about much of anything except the assumption that there were a dozen men on the other side with assault rifles aiming at my brother. I was wrong though. Settling back on the natural plane in the end lobby, all my rifle sight caught was a few bewildered and piss-scared techs.

Niko already had one by his lab coat collar with the blade across his quivering Adam's apple. "Open the door," my brother hissed. The scientist worked his mouth like a trout, but nothing but a few whimpers came out. The two female lab coats were frozen, eyes focused on me. Well, it had to be pretty shocking to see me appear out of a gray distortion. Niko was glaring at me for it.

I lifted my eyebrows and motioned the nose of the gun at them. Both flinched. "You heard him. Door open, now."

One of the women edged toward the panel outside of the heavy door, her flats barely making a sound in the water over the siren that continued to screech. She swiped her card despite her braver colleague telling her not to, but hesitated at the print scan. I leveled my stolen M16 at chest level on the heroine and gave the other a sidelong look. I had no intention of killing any of these poor schmucks, but if they stood between me and Cassie I didn't have any reservation in shooting out a knee cap or two. They were poking and prodding us for DNA and science all this time anyway. I deserved a little payback.

"Open the door," I repeated evenly. The brunette pressed her finger to the pad, then punched in a set of numbers into the keypad. The door whined, clanked and, with a shake, started lifting.

"They'll notice," warrior princess declared in front of me. Too bad she looked like a drown rat or that declaration might have been intimidating.

I reached forward and grabbed her arm. The pansy under Niko's control made another clipped cry that almost sounded like words, but he didn't move to defend the lab-bitch. Niko clocked him across his temple and the little weasel slumped to the wet ground. I shoved the brave little toaster in front of me, pressing the rifle nose to her back. And Niko proceeded to the other tech, knocking her out a little more gently with a sharp slap.

My brother was getting less and less moralistic by the day; I should have probably been worried about that, but, c_'est la vie__,_ that was survival for you. I nudged the gun to the conscious lab coat's back, urging her forward. "Now I assume you stopped the large scale crematorium action as well, because otherwise you'll be just as much a crispy critter as us."

"It would be worth it to rid the world of your kind," she hissed. If she'd been facing me I would have expected her to spit on me. Niko ninja-ed up behind me, stealing my hostage and tossing her up against the nearest wall. He still got more enraged when people insulted me about my lineage than I did. It had become almost amusing.

"If you wish to survive this you might consider answering yes or no from now on," Niko snarled. He pushed her back in line with my gun. "Alpha Bravo 12, you're going to open it and then we are going to leave. Simple as that." I was glad to hear that. It meant Niko wasn't going to go all 'freedom to all creatures' on me. Now I just had to make sure Cassie didn't.

We sloshed down the hall without the flame throwers attacking; that was probably a manual reaction, maybe a big red button in one of the security offices. The door at the other end of the hall was still on lock down, but I counted that as blessing; the security officers were down there. How that stopped them from seeing what we were doing I didn't know, but I didn't ask.  
>What mattered to me was that the blond scientist opened up Cassie's cage (thank whatever higher power that was out there that they didn't change her room after Niko was let in) and no one was shooting at us yet. I squeezed through the door the moment it opened enough for me to get my chest by. I don't know what I expected, but Castiella unconscious on the floor with blood under her claws was not it.<p>

The door didn't open all the way, straining against the rented metal on her side. She'd tried to claw her way out, probably when the first explosion went off, then the gas came in. I could still scent the remnants of it, choked on it a little. I slung the rifle around my back with the strap and scooped her up. There was a thwap behind me and the sound of a body crumpling to the ground. I knew it wasn't Nik falling so I didn't bother to turn around until I had Cassie in my arms.

"Time to leave?" I asked. Niko was standing over the female scientist body, switching his grip on the katana to one that could swipe instead of bludgeon. He nodded and started down the hall again. I followed at a jog, unable to full out run with Cassie lolling in my arms. She was a slight thing, but the weight was still a hindrance. And it was enough of a hindrance that I was several steps behind Niko again. The overhead door at the end of the hall started rumbling down and my brother shot a nervous glance over his shoulder.

"Go!" I shouted to him, not mentioning that I wouldn't make it. I'd travel if I fucking had to, but I was getting out of here and I wasn't getting my brother killed for my hormones. He didn't argue this time, rolling under the door. I had to keep faith that the Vigil wouldn't shoot Nik the moment they saw him; he was human and still prime recruit material. He shoved his katana under the gap to prop it open for the short time I needed to get under. I heard him curse when the pressure snapped the weapon like a stick in the forest.

I slowed down as the door crawled closed. Taking in a few deep breaths, I hoisted Castiella higher in my arms so her head dropped to my shoulder. Lying like a rag doll couldn't be comfortable. I stared at the door for a moment, fully aware that the cameras lining the hall were whirring to focus on us. Whatever had stopped them from seeing us was gone; big brother was watching and not the big brother that was constantly saving my ass.

"Okay, Cas, now what?" I murmured, not expecting a response. Not expecting any of this, but then again wasn't it Cassie that told me 'never expect'. She moaned against my throat, then coughed. It became a hacking sound that jarred her in my arms. I set her on her feet, but they didn't hold her and together we lowered to our knees. "Cas, you with me?"

"Yeah," it came out as a wheeze. Her face tilted up, half covered by her wet hair. I smiled and brushed it back.

"The heathens are coming. You ready?"

"Wha?"

I laughed and touched my forehead to hers. "We're stuck between the corridor doors and I believe security has been alerted to our great escape." Her lips found mine for a brief touch as simple as breathing.

"You're brother? Robin?"

"Getting out as we speak," or at least they better be. "We need to get to my apartment, but I'm not sure what traveling for two will do to me." I already had a bit of a headache from the first gate, or that could have been from the blasted alarm that hadn't ceased. Cassie's mahogany eyes flickered to each of mine in reservation. She was soaking wet from the sprinklers, but that just made the scrub dress cling to her body, made me notice how much thinner she was, made her shiver. I kissed her and tasted honey and water. "You think you can handle a gate? I know I can." She didn't seem convinced, brow wrinkling and eyes still half glazed.

The alarm turned off abruptly, making my ears ring with the echo. Cassie and I both looked toward the door closest to us as the sprinklers kept going. Another explosion rocked the foundation below us, slamming my shoulder into the wall behind me. Deep voices commanded for it to be ignored on the other side of the door. And with the same groan and crack, the overhead started to lift.

"Cassie, now's a good a time as any." I could see a dozen black boots from under the rising frame. Behind us the other exit was opening as well, probably with just as many guns behind it.

"Cal, I—" The serenade of rifles being chambered, pumped or otherwise loaded cut her off. Six men dropped to one knee in full Swat armor and six more were aiming behind like a front line firing squad.

"Cassie!" She wrapped her arms around me, wings sprouting to shield as she built a gate around us.

"Don't open your eyes," she whispered and then the blood pumping sensation of ripping through space. Soaring without wings. It wasn't a pleasant landing though. I banged my head on something hard and rough and Castiella's weight only proved to grate it further into my skull. I groaned and Cassie recoiled quickly.

"Nnn, Cas," I was about to reprimand her for the harsh trip, but she clamped a hand over my eyes before I could squint through the overcast light that now engulfed us. "Cas?"

"I said don't open your eyes."

My hands groped for purchase as she held me down, coming up with stone dusts and rocks. The cold chilled me to the bone and without seeing I knew exactly where I was. I trembled, nausea coiling and making me glad I hadn't had anything to eat recently. I tried to for words, tried to yell at her for bringing me here, but it came out garbled.

"I'm sorry. I tried to tell you. I don't know of many places in New York to gate yet. It's hard to gate where you don't know—"

I slapped her hand away and shoved her off of me. Rolling onto my knees and making sure the only thing I saw when I opened my eyes was the hard craggy surface of rock. Just rock. Just like any other rock. "I would have been okay with Greece too."

"I'm sorry," she whispered. Her hands to my back.

"Get me out of here." Before I went super Auphe crazy. They may have all been nuked, and it'd been plenty of years here for the radiation to dissipate, but I wasn't ready to make the old country my vacation home. Fucking Tumulus.

"Can you handle another gate?" My response was coughing, but at least there was no blood, not even from my nose. Okay, so someone else's gate, not as bad. I had a migraine and felt sick to my stomach, but my heart wasn't racing too badly. I nodded. "Concentrate on your apartment and I'll use..." Castiella trailed off and the pressure of her hands on my sides lessened to fingertips. Terror roiled in my stomach like an unbalanced washing machine. I could feel it. Didn't want to believe it, but I could feel it.

Cassie cursed in a strange language. She wrenched me into an upright kneeling position, clutching me to her with one arm and covering my eyes with the other. "Concentrate Caliban. Home."

"No," I whimpered. They were all around us. Little sparks of curiosity and malice bearing down in slow careful steps. The smell of metal, meat, and blood stung my nose. "No."

"Cali, please," Cassie's lips brushed my ear, the only thing grounding me. "Home, we have to get home." I shuddered against her. They were dead. I killed them with Niko at my side. How? "Cali!"

I wrenched my face away from her hand and saw horror come true with my own eyes. There were two of them creeping over stone formations at Cassie's back, so many more circled around us. Blood red eyes focused, but more befuddled than sadistic. White hair made of strange filament dangled above their shoulders, not nearly as long as most of the others. Not nearly as large, but just as sallow and bony. All clawed limbs and razor toothed mouths. They were young. I knew. Young and curious, but that didn't make them any less deadly. Panic bubbled inside. Cassie's nails scraping my nape only helped so much.

"Caliban, now!" And we were traveling again. It was my gate, I could feel the difference now; a certain disconnection with hers, but mine I felt to my bones. It was my gate but _she _wrapped it around us. Cassie used her power to widen the pinprick of a rip and shove us to safety. That was a bit new and fun; I didn't have to do the work after all. In Tumulus one second and tumbling in the grass with another hard landing in the next; we needed to work on that.

The wind knocked out of my chest. Cassie dropped to one shoulder painfully beside me. The world rippled under my back, surging like an uneasy sea. But I wasn't vomiting blood; I didn't even have much of a headache. Not that I felt good. My limbs were like putty, my mouth not even able to form more than a moan. The hard ground didn't help either.

This wasn't my bed, wasn't my apartment. The smell of evergreen was strong in the air, but it wasn't Robin. Pine sap was just as heady and the ground under us was rich with the scent of recently cut grass. I heard a dog barking frantically in the distance, or was it closer and my ears were still ringing?

Home, shit, I went home. And not the slightly above low income apartment in Manhattan. Peeling my eyes back experimentally, I saw the undulations of hills, lush with shrubs, trees and the occasional trailer. One of the many trailer parks I grew up in and the one that the Auphe took me from when I was fourteen. A slew of curses slipped from my mouth as I rolled over to check on Cassie. My girlfriend was gone from her prone position beside me. Obviously more well-versed in gating, she recovered much quicker than I did and was currently crouched over me in next to nothing, facing away from me, spitting and hissing at the neighbors.

My heart dropped to my stomach when my eyes focused. Oh, those weren't the locals and I knew they weren't here to make sure we were all right. I scrambled back almost kicking Castiella's knee out with my scrabbling. She caught my foot, gripping it brutally as she faced off with two stray Auphe that followed us through the gate.

They weren't the same as the ones I saw in Tumulus. They seemed like the big brothers of the new batch; grown into themselves a little more. They were still sinewy, and gangly, and god-awful scary. Just two of them, but there would be more. And two was certainly enough to put me out of commission. They weren't launching at us like a lion on a carcass, which was strange enough, then to have them listening –actually listening– to Cassie, made my head reel.

"_I said back off! This is not your territory, it is mine! My territory, my mate! Understood?"_ It wasn't English Cassie was screaming at them in and there was no Rosetta Stone for Auphe, but after living in their hold for two years their language was something I picked up a little. Cassie was no doubt fluent. "_You will leave. Return home until you have the power to fight me."_

"_You are not one of us. You smell of others. You appear of mixed blood."_

_"That doesn't mean I won't kick your ass."_ Well, my mind loosely translated that one, but by the bared metal fangs of the larger Auphe it held the gist of it. He took a menacing step forward and Cassie let go of my ankle. Her talons shot out, her knees bent to pounce, and her shoulders hunched in preparation of slicing them open. _"Do not test me, child."_

He paused and assessed her with a slow drag of lava red eyes. Honestly, I was utterly proud of the fact that I hadn't pissed my pants yet and amazed that Cassie had the balls to stand up to them. Of course, she'd been hunting them long before I was even born.

The obvious brothers turned to each other in silent discussion and without another glass-breaking word they traveled back home. Just like Cassie demanded. My breath came out in a whoosh that I didn't know I was holding when the gray light of the gate disappeared. Cassie collapsed to her knees beside me, claws retracting and body curling over for a moment. Then she was spinning towards me, grabbing my head between her hands and training her eyes to mine. It was entirely too similar to the night I toppled out of Tulumus into Niko's lap. He held me the same way, checking to see if I was in one piece, determining if I was all there. I wasn't when Niko had been looking in my eyes, not by a long shot, but I could feel the warmth of Cassie's fingers, the brush of the grass blades under my palms. I was grounded and alive. "Caliban, are you okay?"

I meant to say I was. 'I'm okay,' was all that was supposed to come out of my mouth. So how it came out as it did I had no idea. "I love you." My throat closed as soon as the last syllable slipped out, then I started snickering a half hysterically at the look on her face; shell-shocked and beat red at the same time. Granted, some of that color might have been from running around and screaming at our arch nemeses. "I, uh, have no idea why I just said that."

Cassie didn't respond, but her mouth did form a full line of dissatisfaction. Well, shit, I just fucked that one up. "Cas—"

"We have to get out of here before they decide to bring the whole family," she told me. I couldn't read her expression, but I knew the urgency in her tugging me up by my arm was real. And I shared the sentiment. I would just apologize for my idiocy later; I was good at that. Well, no I wasn't very good at that because I rarely apologized for my idiocy.

I trailed after her as we weaved into the closest pine grove. And during the next half hour, Castiella proved to me, without a doubt, that she had been bff's with Robin Goodfellow for a very long time. By the end of it, she sat on the concrete steps of the closest convenience store, clad in clothes pilfered from the laundry line outside one of the trailers, and smoking a cigarette, while I shifted on my feet next to a pay phone and waited for Niko to pick up on the other line. We also stole what little money we could find in the safe of the closed store and got a little breakfast...of sorts.

I was hardly feeling guilty for the felony, and Cassie seemed to be pretty okay with the whole ordeal. Finding out your homicidal relatives were still alive put things into perspective. It was late, but not late enough that cops would overlook stragglers outside of a convenience store that no longer had an alarm system, but I had to talk to Niko and Cassie was respecting that. Hell, she didn't look the least bit concerned about the fuzz catching us at the scene of the crime.

"Cal?" I smirked at the sound of my brother's voice on the other line. Strained and weary and hopeful. I was honestly a little nervous when he didn't pick up on the first ring; I didn't doubt his abilities to get out of the Vigil building, but that niggling fear that I'd left my brother there to die was irrationally in the back of my head.

"Yeah, I'm alive. Sorry to disappoint."

"Where are you?" And that tone was both chiding for my comment and paternally frightened.

"Clarion," I replied, knowing he would get it. Knowing he would figure out exactly where I was in this boondock town. The trailer park wasn't actually in the mile wide borough, but it was close enough to still be in Clarion County even if it wasn't in the town. Nik and I used to have to walk to school, it seemed like such a devastating distance when I was young. Now it took Cassie and me barely ten minutes to jog to the outskirts.

"What happened?" It was a deep question, mostly because the only thing that would take me back here would be a gate misfire and the only way I would travel here instead of New York was due to extreme stress related to the events that occurred eight years ago. Technically ten for me if you counted the two years I spent in Tumulus.

"I'm fine. Cassie's with me. I'll explain everything, just come pick us up. I don't think either of us are up for another gate."

Niko sighed through the receiver, both relieved and wired. It was an interesting combination. "There's a small hotel off of I-80. Get some rest, I'll meet you there as soon as I can." He hung up and I was left with a static dial tone in my ear. I replaced the receiver and sighed myself. Never mind that I didn't have an ID and Niko had no way of knowing we had any money. I glanced over at Cassie and hoped Robin had taught her how to sneak into a hotel room as well as he taught her to pick a lock.

When I made my way over to her, Cassie didn't move other than to snub out her cigarette and chuck the rest of the pack into the trash can; apparently she was done with those. We sat in silence for a little while watching the sun setting behind the few businesses that dared to transact so far from the main strip. I could actually see the headlights of the highway between the thick trees.

It really wasn't a bad town. Simple, but not bad.

"This is all my fault."

I glanced over at Cassie, then seeing she was serious, glared. "How is this your fault? Yeah, okay, maybe taking a panicked detour to Tumulus wasn't the greatest idea, but you were expecting a barren wasteland, not a family reunion."

A small smile tugged at her full lips. Her red-brown eyes slid over to mine and her expression darkened to guilt. "You ever wonder why the Auphe were dwindling before you started dropping buildings on them and setting off bombs in the neighborhood?" I shook my head. I guess I did, but it was never the foremost concern. Folk lore had it that the humans and their bunny-scale procreation drove the Auphe out. "I was killing their children. For hundreds of years I was picking off their nests so they couldn't multiply. When you and Niko dropped the bomb, I was tracking their most recent nest. The females disappeared, most likely going after you, and left the nest vulnerable. I went for it, but then everything exploded. I panicked and gated here." She pressed her fingers to her forehead to hide her face. "They survived. I should have gone back to make sure."

"How would you know? Nik and I nuked Tumulus. I thought all of them were dead too. I _felt_ all of them die."

"I did too, but the young ones are hard to sense. That's how they snuck up on us."

"Still," I urged. "_Nuked_ them."

Cassie's lips pursed. "With what? A nuke the size of luggage? A bomb that size would decimate Manhattan, but it probably wouldn't even touch San Francisco."

I stared for a moment, trying not to let the concept that Tumulus was that fucking huge make me vomit. Instead I concentrated on her unnecessary self-incarceration. Not like I wasn't used to it; Niko blamed himself for shit that wasn't by any fault of his all the time. It was more often my fault, but I refused to take responsibility for crap that was out of my control. "You couldn't have known."

"Did you actually mean it?" Cassie asked after another bought of quiet. Her round face tilted toward me with upturned eyes. I faltered when I realized the reference. My jaw clenched as if to stop me from responding. I supposed my uncomfortable silence was enough of an admission. Cassie dropped her head in her hands and let out a heavy sigh. "I'm sorry I did this to you. I should have never pursued you. I thought it was over. I thought I was done, but those assholes keep popping out of the wood works and now I have to go finish the job."

"Wait, what?" I stood up before I realized the action in my head. "If you think you're up and leaving me now you are sadly mistaken."

"Cal, this is my fault. I brought this onto you. You were fine without me—"

"I was a self-loathing prick with a nasty attitude and no concept of what love was let alone what it could feel like," I snapped. "God damn it, Cassie, this is not your fault—"

"They didn't know how to gate, Caliban." That shut me up. And her standing up to face me actually had me retreat a step. "They are young and without any leadership. They followed me. They followed my example and I just gave them a shiny new toy in the form of Earth. I just gave them an all access pass to you. I will not lie down until every last one of them is dead."

"Agreed," I managed to get out and with more confidence straightened my shoulders. "So you come back with me. You join Nik and I and we do this as we always have. They find us, we murder the shit out of them. It's not like I haven't dealt with this before."

Cassie growled in irritation. I wouldn't have been surprised if she'd stomped her foot. "I didn't want you to _ever_ have to deal with this again!"

"So how about this time you back me up?" The crunch of gravel interrupted our argument and I grabbed her arm, both of us dashing behind the next building over before the headlights caught us. It was just a passing sedan, but in a town like this everyone knew everyone and if the driver saw something suspicious they would probably be a good little neighbor and call in the cops.

Castiella leaned back against the brick siding that hid us and closed her eyes. "I hate this."

"Me too, but I really don't want to do this without you." Well, that was honest enough. Did that count as I love you? Did I need you equate? Because I did need her. I wanted her and I needed her. "Cassie, please. We're both fucking tired and I smell like I swam in the Hudson. Can we just go get a room, clean up and get some sleep before we talk about what happens tomorrow?"

She tilted her head toward me, smiled meekly. "Fine." As I started walking away she caught my wrist and tugged me to a halt. I let her walk around in front of me and certainly didn't mind when she cupped my jaw and kissed me. Somehow it felt all the more liberating now that I admitted my feelings; either that or it was just because we weren't being watched by sick bastards who took pleasure in killing our brain cells with Nitrous.

"You know you really don't smell that bad," Cassie cooed and slipped her hands along my hips. I snickered, taking her mouth again. She, somehow, smell amazing. All adrenalin sweet and forest sharp. "I love you, too."

I wrinkled my nose, even as my heart strained against my rib cage it started up double time so suddenly. "You conniving little bitch." Despite the ever-present foul language, it sounded more like a compliment than an insult. She giggled and kissed me again; I fell into this one as eagerly as the first. 


	18. Chapter 18 Cal

**Chapter Eighteen**

**CAL**

I didn't play many games as a child. Watching other kids run through the sprinkler or race by on Big Wheels from my backyard (if we even had one at the time) was my childhood past time. Niko would play with me when I was small and naive, but he somehow managed to make it educational. He'd twist a simple game of slap jack into a means to improve hand-eye coordination. Hide and Seek was a survival game. And story time became a history or monster lesson half the time. I thought they were great; my big brother was paying attention to me after all. But I had to say the game I was playing with Castiella, while at first hadn't been a game at all, was far more entertaining than Blind Man's Bluff.

Nn, blindfolds...that actually wasn't a half bad idea.

"Caliban Leandros, I am _just_ going to use the bathroom." I tugged her back onto the bed regardless. She giggled as I dumped her onto her back and draped my arm over her stomach to hold her there. It was the third time I had to do it. The first had been a serious attempt to leave me. She got the hotel door open before I even woke up, but I was up and across the room slamming it shut faster than she obviously thought I could.

We didn't argue, just stared with intimidation for a moment or two, then she huffed out a sigh and stripped out of her stolen jeans again. That, of course, just negated any anger I'd been ready to launch at her and the events proceeding dropped us both back to the mattress. Cassie then used my understandable exhaustion after said events to her advantage and tried to slip out again while I was unconscious. She tried it with a gate, which I felt and closed immediately. Needless to say I didn't really believe her this time.

"Seriously, I have to piss," she whispered in my ear. I adored the fact that she said it like that; the vulgarity kinda turned me on. My chuckle was rather throaty in my fatigue and I dropped a kiss to her temple before lifting up my arm.

"I swear, if I hear a deadbolt it's on."

Cassie snorted, but caught my mouth lazily before slipping off the bed. I rolled over onto my side to watch her, mostly because all she was wearing was a man's flannel shirt that was only long enough to cover half her ass. That was the where the whole appreciation for this game came in. That and I really liked tackling her to the mattress. I smirked and buried my face into her pillow, where her scent had already soaked in. She wasn't leaving. I wouldn't let her. Not just because I didn't want her putting herself in the danger, but because I selfishly wanted her for myself until we got sick of each other. If that ever happened.

I groaned into the fabric, realizing I just had another long term thought. Cassie was inspiring some bad habits in me. But then wasn't that the reason I wanted her? Because she made me better, a little more tolerable for others around me. Because, damn it, she made me happy.  
>I tilted my head to the side when I heard the faucet click off and Cassie reemerged from the bathroom. It was a tiny little room with barely enough space for two people in the shower...barely enough room.<p>

Cassie paused a few steps from the bathroom, which was really halfway to the bed. My smirk widened so much it was probably apparent even with half my face in the pillow. I let my unobstructed eye rake over her body. Toned legs fully exposed and moon-kissed, the flannel shirt unbuttoned so low I could see the curves of her breasts. Her round face tilted to one side coyly, dark honey blond hair in soft half-waves around her shoulders, and mahogany eyes smiling with her full lips. "I don't want to leave."

"Then don't," I answered simply. I untangled my arm from under her pillow and stretched it out for her to take, or at least walk toward.

She brushed her hair behind her shoulder, giving me a peek of one creamy breast. I waited for her to either proceed toward me or reply. She did both, making me unbelievably glad. "You know the first time I met you," she started. She stopped just shy of my hand, but my fingertips could still brush her kneecap. I didn't press too hard though, considering it was her injured knee. "In Tumulus, I intended to kill you."

Well, that got my attention. I shifted on the bed so I could see her in full view, but didn't flop onto my back like my body wanted me too. I was still damn tired and our recreational activities, as mind-blowing as they were, weren't helping. Cassie lifted one leg to sit on the edge of the bed beside me. "I'd been killing all their experiments. I didn't know what they had planned, but I knew it wasn't good. I didn't want any creature to go through that."

"What made you change your mind? My rugged good looks?"

She smiled, eyes following my hand as it slid up her thigh. "You are not rugged. Handsome and a little emo—"

"Oh, look at you breaking out the contemporary slang," I teased. My hand made it under the flannel shirt and she didn't even stop me from hooking one finger around the elastic of her bikini underwear.

"It was your eyes," she whispered. I did flop onto my back when she crept over me. Her mouth touched the bridge of my nose. I didn't let it distract me from shimming her panties down from her hips. She kicked out of them in a graceful movement that settled her into a straddling position over me. "You always wonder how Niko can tell what you're thinking without a word? It's in those eyes. Everything you're feeling is right there. You're humanity is in those gorgeous gray eyes."

"What are they saying right now?"

Cassie hummed a sly laugh. "Not what you think they're saying." I lifted my eyebrows as I wrapped my hands around her thighs, waiting for her to continue. "They're saying don't leave me. Like a little puppy."

True enough. "Then don't leave me."

"Fine." Her mouth distracted me for a moment as she nipped at the scruff on my jaw, then kissed it. I caught her up by the nape to stop her from further derailing my train of thought. She snickered at my man-handling. "Yes, I said fine, I'll come back once a week."

"Once a week," I scoffed. "That's like ten years in Tumulus. I don't want you there for that long. I don't want to be away from you for that long either."

Cassie brushed her fingers over my cheek and into my hair. "You drive a hard bargain, Mr. Leandros." I set my jaw to show I was serious. Cassie just kissed it again. "The moment someone or something comes after you because of me I'm off on mission point. Understand?"

Hah, I won. "Nn-hn, we'll see about that." Cassie caught my mouth in counter argument and I didn't let her pull away from me until we were naked and panting on the sheets. I was pretty sure I'd even said 'I love you' several times. And Castiella moaned, breathed, and even screamed it back to me. After the week I had, it was a pretty decent night. 

I woke up from pleasant dreams to the sound of someone trying to jimmy our door. Leave it to Niko; telling me to go to the only hotel around that was single level and didn't have electronic keys. Of course that also allowed Cassie to jimmy said lock and avoid both an ID check and paying any fees what so ever.

I bolted upright from the bed and reached for the steak knife I'd pilfered from the convenience store's deli station.

"It's just Robin," Cassie groaned and managed to press my armed hand down from groping behind her back. "Do you really think the Auphe would bother picking a lock?"

This was true, but I still didn't like it. I dragged myself out of the bed and shrugged on the jeans we snagged from the laundry line for me, which were two sizes too big and needed to be held up with thick twine. I hoped Niko thought to bring us some decent clothes.

The lock loosened just as I reached for the handle, but to be safe I stepped aside to let the intruder in, half hidden by the door swinging in. My blade was at his throat a second later, lifting only when I caught Robin's scent as well as Niko's.

Robin held up his hands, pick and pry in the air, as a precaution. Upon seeing me, he gave me a hundred watt smile and hugged me before I could do anything but lower my weapon. I felt a little vindicated in my masculinity when I stiffened uncomfortably, unable to respond as warmly. I didn't expect Robin to tag along for the ride even if it was only five hours considering how much he complained last time. "Uh, hi. You could have knocked."

Goodfellow patted me on the shoulder, then moved off to greet Cassie, who'd finally pulled herself out of sleep. She had the decency to cover herself with the sheet when Niko walked in, even if she didn't seem too concerned with Robin seeing her naked. I regarded my brother with a scan of my eyes to make sure he was in one piece. Other than a few scratches from debris he looked fine, so Robin was good on his word to get me and my brother out of there. "Hey."

Niko looked me over with quick appraisal too, then smacked my cheek lightly in a brotherly manner to express how he was glad to see me. He offered me a duffel bag that felt weighted with more than clothes. Aw, he brought me a present. "Clothes and weapons for both of you. What happened?" And right to the point. I pressed my lips together and glanced over at Cassie.

She'd wrapped the sheet around her torso in an almost Grecian style; probably learned from Grecian times. I didn't really like that Robin had made himself at home with my girlfriend. An arm wrapped around her with his nose to her temple. They just seemed _too _close sometimes. I shook off the green complexion, no doubt, on my face.

"Gate misfire," I offered. I was still looking at Cassie, so I could see her glare at my fib and knew she wouldn't let me get away with this.

Niko didn't seem convinced either. "Why here?"

"I don't know." I tried for a cavalier attitude, giving my brother a shrug. "I panicked."

"Caliban," Cassie growled from the bed. Her dark eyes showed more than a glare now. "Do not lie about this. Because if I ever have to leave, I need him there and ready to save your ass."

Niko straightened and flickered his gray eyes between us. Then he lifted his chin and challenged me with his 'big brother knows best' look. "Cal, what happened?"

"Cassie woke up right before the guards got to us. She was disoriented and panicked so when I demanded she travel she went to the place she knew best." Nik got the implication and his features immediately contorted to concern. Well, at least, it looked like that to me; the casual observer might only notice his eyebrows twitch. "I'm sane, before you ask. But we have other problems."

"Like what?" Robin asked from the bed. "You drag a few guards to Tumulus with you?"

"The Auphe aren't dead." It was like we just heard the news cast for WWIII and for us it wasn't a far thing. I walked over to the bed, now that the hotel room was adequately secure, and kicked at Robin's shin to get him to move. He smirked at me like he knew my reasons. Maybe my emotions were in black and white in my eyes.

"Then, not to imply disappointment, how are you not dead?" Robin asked as he stepped by me, letting me sit down next to Cassie on the bed. She immediately dropped her head to my shoulder and I took her hand, twining our fingers. I felt their eyes on me; both of them waiting for a hopeful explanation. That Cassie and I somehow defeated them. Or that we'd just been hallucinating.

"They're young," Castiella said, taking over. "From a surviving nest. They have no one to teach them or lead them. Which is both good and cataclysmic. On one hand they listened to me this time, since I'm older, considered an alpha. On the other, it means they're wild cards. And when I gated to get us out of there I taught them a new trick to play with and gave them one giant playpen."

"Do you think you can control them?" Niko seemed hopeful, but realistically we all knew the logic in that was null. Cassie just shook her head. Once, she could, maybe twice, but there was no doubt in my mind that those little bastards would catch on and quickly and they would be after Cassie to take away her claim on this world. "What about for the night?"

"They won't be back tonight. Gating takes a lot out of the younger ones. They're still learning and they won't challenge me for a little while. Ten, twenty, maybe a hundred years in Tumulus if we're lucky." Well, that explained why the Auphe waited so long to have Darkling possess me. Wouldn't want the little lab rat to pass out while trying to open a portal to the dawn of time, would we?

"Then get some sleep," Niko demanded. He motioned to me. "I have another room two doors down." I gave him a dubious look. "You've had five hours to have your fun. I'm tired and I want you in my sights."

I frowned and shot a suspicious glance toward Robin. Goodfellow nearly beamed with mischief. "I assure you I will not taint Cassie's adoration of mediocrity with my world changing experience, endowments, and skills."

"Robbie, don't be an ass," Cassie chided. She turned my face toward her with a gentle finger and smiled. "Go with your brother. I'm sure he'll sleep better with you at his side."

"I will never forgive you if you run off on me."

"I promise, not until my being here imposes immediate harm upon you or your loved ones."

I narrowed my eyes, disliking that wording. If we went by that she would just make up some excuse that her being here has always imposed immediate harm or some shit. "Then I'm not leaving this room."

Cassie sighed through a small grin. "I won't leave tonight."

"Or tomorrow."

She leaned forward and brushed her lips to mine. "Or tomorrow."

"And you'll sleep fully clothed." She laughed at that, a musical sound that made my body shudder. She agreed and I kissed her again, cupping her cheeks and parting my mouth to hers. Niko had to clear his throat loudly to get us to part, not that I wanted to. I considered for a moment, staring into her dark eyes, then said to hell with it. "I love you."

Her smile broadened. "I love you too." The expression on Robin's face as damn near classic when I passed him, then to see Niko watching me with the same floored shock I almost laughed.

"Come on, Cyrano. You look like shit." 

The next morning, Cassie woke me up in Niko and my hotel room. It was a very pleasant beginning of the day after the shit weeks I'd been having. I rolled over when her lips brushed the shell of my ear and smiled. "Good morning."

"Niko wanted to start packing up. I figured you'd want to be awake before he tossed you in the car."

I shrugged. "Not necessarily, but I'm certainly happy to see you."

Nik and I had the conversation last night, before we started watches. Kinda like a mix of the one we had about him and Promise when she lied to him about Cherish and the one we had when I was locked up in my Vigil cell. Was this a good idea? Was she a danger or a blessing? Was she good enough? Ultimately, Nik decided she was most certainly good enough, while I knew she was just shy of perfect. He seemed warm to the idea of her staying with us often and even chuckled when I retold what she said about my cleaning habits.

Bottom line, my brother liked Castiella and I knew he saw a difference in me. Hell, he'd rarely heard me say 'I love you' to him once I was potty trained and I loved my brother more than anyone else in the world. Thankfully, it was a different kind of love otherwise this would get all sorts of vile and messy fast.

"You all right?" Cassie asked, noticing my wince at my mental transgression.

"Yeah, fine. Nothing a good morning screw won't shake me out of."

One brown eyebrow quirked up and Cassie snickered. "How about a good morning kiss and a welcome home screw?"

"Deal." I only got to taste her amazing lips for a few moments before Niko came in. Without words, he told me to move my lazy ass and I did. I had good reason to get home quickly now.

The car ride was relatively uneventful. Cassie and I went through the events in the Vigil prison as well as Tumulus and our crash landing in Clarion. Robin seemed to find the fact that Cassie basically told to Auphe to shove off hilarious. It would probably become one of his embellished stories in the near future despite the fact that he wasn't even there. Most of the trip was Goodfellow regaling us with the tales of his infiltrating and exploding half of the building. Not that I wasn't impressed. Not only did he and Promise manage to work together without bloodshed among them, but he got someone to rig the cameras into a loop, which explained why Niko and I could bust out without the guards coming at us. He also collapsed the underground tunnels and made the basement barracks uninhabitable, only killing a handful of humans. The Vigil would be busy with that clean up for a while. And he even brought me some of that pen dynamite for our arsenal.

By the fourth hour I'd stopped listening to him, drifting in and out of sleep leaned against the door with Cassie curled up in my arms. I didn't even wake up when we pulled into the lot of Robin's business. Not until Niko flicked my forehead, of course. It was amusing because Cassie started whining about moving before I even did, but we got up and trekked off to the subway. Niko was watching us the whole time; studying or observing or making sure Cassie wasn't actually a serial killer. He had trouble letting these things go.

"We're going to Promise's," Niko informed us, mostly because I looked at him in confusion when we got on the wrong line to take us to our apartment. He shoved me through the doors, a little gentler with Cassie, even though she hardly needed it. "The peris have been circling Robin's apartment. And the Vigil has their eye on ours already."

"And now the Auphe," I muttered. I knew it wasn't an immediate threat because my girlfriend was currently queen of the first evil and they didn't really know where I lived without a history lesson from those that had visited before.

I jerked to a stop when Robin slipped around me to settle in the chair next to Cassie. And what the fuck? Robin hated sitting down on the subway, said it wrinkled his clothes and coated them with primitive oils and communicable grime, etcetera, etcetera. Damn it, he was going to have way too much fun making me jealous. I glared down at him, but his only reply was a smug smirk and wicked glee in his green eyes as he crossed his legs and leaned back. One arm rested over the length of the seats behind them like a teenage dweeb on his first date at the movies.

"Stop it," Castiella hissed at the nuisance. She knocked his arm away before he slung it around her shoulder. Goodfellow tried to put on that innocent face, but I wasn't buying it. I stood in front of Cassie, clutching the hand bar in one hand and her pale hand in the other when she offered. Cassie wrapped her fingers around my palm, squeezing to comfort. "Don't let him get to you. He's just jealous."

Robin let off a harsh laugh. "Jealous? Me? Of that?" He motioned to me with a dismissive flip of one hand. "He who purchases his wardrobe out of the back of the same van he gets his overcompensating firearms?"

"Jealous of he who has tapped what you cannot," Cassie countered. She leaned closer to Robin, still holding my hand. "And trust me, there is no need for any compensation."

I didn't even have to reply, my own grin was enough to have Robin's cocky expression fall in annoyance. I brought Cassie's hand up to kiss her knuckles in appreciation. It was amusing to catch not only the minute smile on Niko's lips for the action, but the curious/disgusted look two werewolves were giving us a few seats down. I wasn't sure if it was due to just my presence of the concept of a half-Auphe having a romantic relationship. Either way, I found it entertaining and with an obvious eye on the hoodie-shrouded hydrant-pissers I tilted Castiella's chin up toward me and took her mouth rather gratuitously. She grunted in slight surprise, but reciprocated with a smirk and a nip to my bottom lip when we parted. "What was that for?"

"Rilin' the dogs," I murmured. Niko kicked my leg. The wolves didn't approach, though they watched me the whole ride. They eyed Cassie with suspicion too; their nostrils flared every so often as if trying to scent her. It was strange that they couldn't figure out what she was, but I supposed Auphe and peri smelt completely different and the mix probably just confused the hell out of them. Whatever, I loved it and all I cared about was that they knew she was mine.

Niko grabbed me up the upper arm once we departed the tram. He pulled me close enough to hiss in my ear, though I knew I would be chided by just the look on his face. "I understand your masculine need to stake a claim on her, but I would advise against making your relationship conspicuous."

"Hey, they were the ones looking at us like an old bitty staring down an interracial couple."

"We _are _an interracial couple," Cassie teased as she pivoted around us. "Inter-species even." I gave her a smirk and stared after her, but Niko pulled me to a stop.

"Cal, I'm serious. Castiella hid her linage from us for a reason. The more people that know the more danger both of you are in. This community will not take lightly to you and another half Auphe having a relationship. They will fear you and therefore challenge you, threaten you..." he trailed off when I rolled my eyes. "And you aren't going to consider a word I'm saying."

"Consider, sure. Abide, not a chance." I patted his shoulder. Robin was getting a little too playful with Cassie on the platform again, dancing with her to the echoing music of the cleanest looking guitar peddler I'd ever seen. Ah, wait, that was Ham. Go figure. Niko caught the back of my jacket; back to wearing burdensome clothes in the summer heat to hide my Glock and various other weapons.

"Be careful," he hissed at me, then let me go. I jogged over to where Goodfellow was dipping Cassie. She spun out of the puck's arms gracefully and into mine. Of course that was more of a collision. My hands caught her by the upper arms, hardly as graceful, but I still got her. Her fingers tangled in the lapels of my jacket and she pulled me against her mouth again. Briefly, but I enjoyed it all the same.

"Come on, lovebirds, let's get you undercovers," Robin quipped. He actually smacked _my_ ass to get us moving and I gave him a vicious scowl, but with Cassie under my arm even sexual harassment didn't seem as bad. That didn't stop me from slamming Robin over the back of the head with the blunt end of my matte knife. "Ow, you uncouth rapacious hellion."

"And don't forget it," I countered. I was beginning to understand why Promise disliked the puck so much. And she looked none too pleased when Niko informed her that he would be staying at her apartment as well.

"He's in no danger. Why can't he just stay over at Ishiah's place?" The tautness in her pale features would have clearly spoken her feelings on Robin's presence even without her irritated words, but Niko had ushered all of us into the apartment before even looking her in the eye.

"It's just for the night, Promise," Niko murmured, trying to take her arm and guide her away. It would have been embarrassing –bringing Casitella into the middle of this– if she hadn't been attempting to stifle a smile the moment Goodfellow stepped over the threshold.

Promise shook her head, then carefully returned one of her blond striped brown curls back behind her shoulder. How cute, she'd gussied herself up for Niko. I wondered if she did that often. Slipped on her favorite silk nightie and stoked a fire...I needed to tell her that Nik's favorite color was green one of these days. "I'm sure Ishiah wishes to see his lover after being apart from him for such a time. Far be it from me to deny him the...magnificent presence of his beloved puck."

"Glad you've accepted the fact that I am—" Robin cut off with a grunt when Cassie elbowed him in the stomach. He wheezed and gave her a hurt looked before choking out, "What the hell?"

"Behave," she ordered. She said nothing else, but lifted her eyebrows to challenge him.

"I don't want to leave you alone tonight."

Cassie snorted and motioned to me, Nik, and Promise. "Hardly the case." Robin opened his mouth to dissuade her, but she waved a hand between them. "Our host obviously holds some animosity toward you and considering Niko's likeness to my uncle it isn't hard to piece together why. I know the fact that you were unable to coax either of the Leandros brothers into your bed kills you, but some men just prefer a vagina and you need to accept that. On that note, stop trying to piss my boyfriend off by implying our relationship had ever been or ever will be more than friendship and me saving your reckless ass from horrible decisions."

I was nearly biting my bottom lip to the point of bleeding by the time she was done, my shoulders shaking with contained laughter. Promise stared with wide lavender eyes, either scandalized by Cassie's crassness, or shocked that she would talk down to Robin like that. I did admit it wasn't something we ever tried, at least not like that. Because usually the puck just went off on a tangent.

"Hah, me reckless? Me?" Which he still did. "Pray-tell who was the level-headed she-devil that had the genius idea to sneak into Genghis Kahn's palace because 'he was out conquering the world and would never notice we were there'? Who was the one that decided to goad those Zanzibar soldiers into starting a war with England? Who convinced India to give its people the right to marry their dog?"

"Oh, come on, that was funny," Cassie interrupted. "And that war between Zanzibar and England only lasted thirty minutes."

"Who told me Pompeii would be a nice vacation spot?"

Her smile dropped instantaneously, followed by her chin as she gazed to the floor. "I didn't know what they would do, Robin. I thought you were safe there." Her voice was soft, apologetic. I doubted that was what Robin had intended.

The puck lifted his eyebrows, mimicking my internal question mark. "They?"

Cassie pressed her lips together, then sighed, but at least her eyes lifted to meet his again. "Robbie, you're my best friend. You really think I wanted to abandon you? The Auphe noticed. They were targeting you, threatening to hurt you to get to me. I sent you to Pompeii because I thought you'd be safe. And you were…for a while, until they opened a gate inside the volcano to prove a point. I'm sorry I didn't get there in time to stop them. I'm sorry I couldn't save Cyrilla too. It's my fa—"

"Don't," Robin snapped. "It's not."

And both of them fell silent. Just like that. Argument over. Cassie stared up at her pan friend with remorse and Robin caved in to the adorable expression. He wrapped his arms around her slender shoulders and kissed the crown of her head.

"You made a promise to me. If you back out on it, I swear," Robin tilted her chin up and gave her a warning look. "I will hunt you down. I don't care if I have to make Cal gate me to Tumulus. I will hunt you down."

"You and Cal have me under dual contracts, so I'm pretty certain you'd make good on that claim." She patted his cheeks, smiling. "Now go to Uncle Ishiah. I'm sure he misses his puck." With another hug and a significant point at Niko, telling him to watch out for Cassie, Robin Goodfellow left the apartment without further complaint.

I could literally see Promise relax the moment her front door closed behind him. She smoothed down the front of her shirt and turned to her new guest like a proper hostess. "Well, Castiella, I'm glad to finally meet you."

"Ah." Cassie shook herself out of whatever unpleasant nostalgia Robin had shocked her into and stepped forward to take Promise's porcelain white hand. "Sorry about the language. Not the greatest first impression."

"You got him to leave my apartment. You have nothing but my gratitude right now." She glanced over at me and Niko and offered that graceful smile of hers. "Now I'm sure Caliban is famished, so if you would like, please make yourselves comfortable and I will whip something up for you."

"Best pseudo sister ever," I teased. She actually blushed when I gave her a peck on her cheek. Niko gave me a startled look as well. I'd never called Promise anything but Promise. Okay, well, in the beginning I called her vampire and occasionally gold-digging tramp, but that was before she proved herself as mostly trustworthy and a good match to my brother.

I caught Cassie around her waist without even looking behind me, pulling her against me. "So, uh, Promise. How well does sound travel through your apartment?"

"Cal," Cassie snickered and gave me a light punch to my side.

"What? You offered welcome home sex, you never specified whose home."

Promise had on a small smile, while Niko looked like he was ready to drive a throwing knife into my arm. He opened his mouth to chide me, but Promise lifted her palm to stop him. She motioned down the hall to where Cherish had slept when she wasn't trying to get us killed. "You'll be sleeping in the last room on the right. The bed has been made and I ask only that you take into consideration that my cleaners get paid by the hour."

I smirked at the almost slack-jawed surprise on Niko's face, but couldn't mock him for it. Castiella quickly changed her mind about modesty with Promise's blessing and I happily let myself be dragged into the bedroom at the end of the hall. I was attacked the moment the door was closed, but I certainly didn't mind this kind of assault. With her legs already wrapped around my waist and her mouth locked to mine, we dropped to the bed.


	19. Chapter 19 Cal

**Chapter Nineteen**

**CAL**

Nightmares were a part of every child's life. Every eight year old woke up in the middle of the night or first thing the morning fearing what was under their bed or what was lurking in their closet. I was no different. Just like every other child in the world I did that running jump into bed to avoid the monsters grabbing for my ankles and stayed up for hours staring at the closed closet until my eyelids drooped to the point of passing out. It was easier when Niko slept in the bedroom with me. A comfort that big brother would defend me. Difference was my big brother _was _defending me and there _were _monsters at the windows, stalking in the shadows. Difference was I had these blood curdling nightmares every night for a full year when I came back from Tumulus and more than occasionally to present day.

I'd been to Tumulus again. Even the four seconds I'd traveled there with Niko to nuke the damned place gave me subconscious nightmares that could have very well been memories. I kept waking in cold sweats, sometimes screaming, sometimes choking. Never remembering much more than running for my life. That night I feared what dreams would come to me after visiting my own personal hell for the third time. Yet, when I went to bed the anxiety of shutting my eyes faded when Cassie crawled under the sheets and gave me a languid goodnight kiss.

I still anticipated the nightmares. Figured I would probably attack Cassie at least once during the night if she tried to soothe me from the dream and I also assumed she could take whatever I dished out. As it turned out, whether I had nightmares or not, I slept through the night. I woke up more refreshed than I ever had in my life with the exception (maybe) of infancy. I stretched with a lazy smile, loving that Castiella's scent was the first thing I smelled, followed by the aroma of eggs and bacon. Then my heart stopped and the content mood vanished the moment my arm grazed an empty pillow instead of soft dark blond hair.

I bolted up from the bed, nightmares now reality. Cassie wasn't in the bed beside me, wasn't in the room and the bathroom connected to the guest room was ajar and vacant as well. I curse and kicked out of the sheets. I rushed for the door, skidding to a halt and grabbing my boxers before I scandalized my hostess by dashing bare-assed through her family room. I scanned each room with frantic eyes as I passed, then regained my breath when I entered the kitchen.

Three pairs of eyes darted over to me when I knocked open the swinging door into the expansive kitchen. By the alarm on Niko's face, I probably looked like I'd just had a wrestling match with a baby Boggle. I took in a deep breath, gaze fixed on my girlfriend who was currently staring back at me with a spatula in hand and a look of absolute concern on her adorable round face.

"Cal?" Nik asked. "What's wrong?"

Promise was at the stove as well; all three of them participating with the breakfast making and letting me sleep in. It was considerate and loving and, damn it, I thought Cassie had left. I thought she had abandoned me. And it was the worse feeling in the world. The only thing I could compare it too would be when Niko started going to school and I was left at home, too young. Apparently I cried all day, not that I remembered much of it since I was only two, but I remembered that sensation in my gut. I remembered the sinking horror that I was alone in the world. I'm sure if I remembered the loneliness of being chained in Tumulus, Casitella leaving me wouldn't be so earth-shattering, but...

Cassie tossed the spatula to Niko, before my brother could rush to my aid, and swung over the kitchen island like it was a pommel horse. She was in my arms a second later and I clutched her to me like a man drowning. I didn't realize I was shaking until her steady, warm, body was pressed against me, stabilizing me. "I thought you left," I hissed out. I tried to control my body, squeezed my eyes shut and tangled one hand in her slightly damp hair. Why did that hurt so much? Why did that scare me so much?

"I'm right here," she whispered. I could feel her breath against my throat. It comforted, stopped my shaking. She turned my huddled face toward her and kissed the bridge of my nose. "I'm right here. I thought you knew I got up, I'm sorry." She glanced over her shoulder at my brother and Promise, then took me by my hips and turned me back toward the door. "Come on, we need to talk about this."

Nik didn't look happy about her taking me away, but he didn't call us back. He did try and follow, but Promise pressed her delicate hand to his chest. Cassie led me back to the guest bedroom and forced me to sit on the bed as she stood over me. It put me at eye-line with her chest, which would have normally distracted me, especially since she had borrowed a shirt from Promise and it dipped temptingly with her slenderer shoulders. At the moment, I was just relieved to see any part of her. I reached out and hooked my fingers around hers, needed the contact. "I don't know what to do."

"This is why I should probably just leave now," Cassie whispered. She squeezed my hand. "One day I might have to leave you for your protection and I don't want you to go through this uncertainty every morning." She stopped and took a fumbled step back when I stood up abruptly from the bed. I still held her hand so she couldn't get far, not that she tried. She was still close enough for me to kiss her, but I didn't. I also didn't say anything. Not a word.

Castiella's full lips parted with a tortured look on her face. "I know you don't want me to leave. I don't want to leave, but I can't let the Auphe continue to procreate and hunt us. I can't let them regain any ground."

"Then leave." I said it evenly, which amazed me. Anger, frustration and the greatest sadness were all battling it out in the pit of my stomach. Anger usually won out and this time was no different. I just risked my life _and _my brother's life _and _the life of one of my only friends. I endured a week of needles and poison and who knew what else. And all that for her to take away what I was fighting for? Castiella took in a short breath as if I'd slapped her. "What? That's what you wanted me to say right? A free pass to run away?"

"I'm not running away, Cal. The Auphe will—"

"I don't fucking care about the Auphe!" I snapped. I yanked her arm, sending her crashing against my chest. I caught her other arm by the shoulder. Not caring that I was being rough. Not caring at all. Cassie cringed at my grip; she was still recovering from injuries after all. "I've been running from them all my life, I'm done. I want to live my life now."

"I'm trying to ensure that you do, Caliban."

I seethed and shoved her away from me. "Then go. Leave. Prove to me that the only person I can depend on is my brother. It's a concept I should have never doubted." I wanted to punch something. And shit, she looked like she was about to cry. I shoved a finger in her face and shook my head. "Don't you dare. You are not allowed to fucking cry. I'm not the one doing this."

Cassie took another step back, took in a deep breath and turned from the room. The fury boiling inside me turned to ice in an instant as I watched her leave. Nausea rolled in my stomach and crawled up my throat. I punched the wall, ignoring the harsh sting to my knuckles, and dropped to bed. What the hell did I just do?

I buried my face in my hands and waited, holding my breath, until I heard the front door of the apartment close sharply. My throat tightened to the point of painful discomfort. I actually felt the stinging in the backs of my eyes too. I'm pretty sure I could count the times I've cried on one hand (after I hit puberty that is) and I really didn't want this to be the next digit.

"No," it was a pretty stern snap, muffled by the distance between me and Niko. For once he wasn't saying it to me. I lifted my face with narrowed eyes, listening. There was a soft voice that followed, staccato in their syllables like she was choking on them. That wasn't Promise's voice...

"No," Niko argued again, just as firm. I could hear the front door rattled, then close again. This time it couldn't have been open more that a few inches, before being slammed shut. "I'm not letting you. Damn it, just stay there."

I could hear the whisper of footfalls leading up to my temporary room, but couldn't tell who it was since all of those I loved could walk as silent as a still night. Comparatively I sounded like a charging bull. Niko stopped in the threshold of the room, arms cross and olive-toned skin tight around his jaw and eyes. "You are not doing this."

"What do you want from me?"

"For you to fight for love as desperately as you fight for your life." Niko whipped an arm out to motion down the hall. "She is teetering on her will to leave and you push her out the door?"

"She's going to leave eventually."

"And I'm going to die eventually, would you like to put a bullet in my brain to get it over—"

"Don't!" I snapped, standing from the bed. "Don't even say that! I don't want to hear it!"

Niko sighed, shoulders rounding just slightly in defeat and arms dropping to his sides. "Cal...I'm pretty sure that she's the best thing that will ever happen to you. Or at least she is so far. I've never seen you this content or happy. Don't give up." As if in response the front door closed for the last time. Niko's head bowed in a silent curse, then he returned to staring in that way. The way that had me knowing everything he wanted to say.

I knew what he wanted to say because it was in my head too, rolling around like a tire down a steep hill. I loved her; I could only admit something like that aloud to a few people. I loved her and she was leaving me to protect me. I suddenly realized what George felt when I turned away from her that last time. Except I wasn't a vulnerable human. I wasn't incapable of fending for myself. I wasn't in any _more_ danger with Cassie than I was without.

Niko tilted his head, studying me. Then as I rose from the bed he tossed me my jeans. By the time I shrugged them on he had my shirt at the ready. I grabbed it and went for the door. I didn't bother with shoes and kinda regretted it once I was running on concrete. I didn't have to run far. Cassie was leaving me, but she wasn't running away. She even stopped when I was within a few feet of her. Her head bowed, shoulders pulled up to her ears and back stiff as it faced me.

I walked the last few steps, trying to organize my thoughts those last few feet.

"I'm just doing what you asked," Cassie murmured. I dodged a wayward pedestrian as I came up to her, didn't bother replying to her comment, and grabbed her arm to drag her toward the exterior of the closest business. It was a pristine storefront for jewelry and purses, unfortunately that meant there was a lot of uppity patrons moving in and out. I ignored them and held Cassie by her shoulders so she couldn't run off on me. I'm sure we both looked utterly out of place in this part of town.

"Niko's right."

She meet my eyes with hers upturned. Tried to make her voice sound sarcastic, but it wavered and her eyes were still wet. "Sorry, wasn't there for that part. What was Niko right about?"

"I need to fight for love as tooth and nail as I do for my life."

"Cal, I don't disagree, but that doesn't change our situation." I cupped her heart-shaped face and kissed her to shut her up. Castiella's fingers caught in the fabric of my shirt, but she pushed me back. "Caliban, stop it. This is best, for me to leave now before—"

"Before what? Before I fall in love with you, because you missed that target. I want you, I need you, please stay, what else do you want me to say? I love you, Cassie." I was saying it like I was arguing with her, but I was still a little pissed off and used it. It was a hell of a lot easier than whispering it lovingly to her. Fury and a disgruntled disposition, that was I made of, and it previously didn't seem to bother Castiella.

She didn't reply, fighting back tears, but instead smoothly collapsed against my chest. I wrapped my arms around her and took in a deep breath of her scent. "You don't fight fair."

I snorted. "How else do you think I'm still alive today?" She tucked her nose between my collarbone and throat, slipping her arms around my waist. I relaxed a little; figuring I'd won this round too. Amusingly it was kind of easy with Cassie. I shifted on my bare feet. The gravel bits were starting to hurt my soles. "Can we go back inside now?"

"Give me your hand," Cassie whispered. She pulled back from our embrace. Slid her fingers down the inside of my arm, prying my fingers apart. The sensation sent tingles both up my arm and down to the pit of my stomach. She was amazing. One touch and I was ready to take her to the bed. Good thing she actually had more stamina than I did. "Close your eyes," she ordered. I gave her a jaundiced look.

"I'm not falling for that again."

Cassie snickered. "I'm not taking you back to Tumulus, I promise. I just know my claws disquiet you a little." I tilted my head in question and Cassie sighed. "Just trust me, please."

I hummed, letting go of my misgivings and showing her my hand palm up. I didn't, however, close my eyes. I watched her as she released one claw (that must have been so convenient when a penknife wasn't handy) just enough to extend an inch. She cut a thin line along one of the creases of my palm, letting the blood well up. People passing weren't even paying any attention to us as they usually didn't in this part of town. Both because I looked like a street urchin and because humans overlooked sensations they couldn't comprehend and when Cassie cut herself along the palm as well then opened a little marble of a gate between out hands, patrons started avoiding the shop completely.

I eyed the sidewalks a little nervously when she first opened the rip. Gates were sometimes a calling card for the Auphe; it was kind of a 'come get me' challenge. The young Auphe didn't appear though and I was soon utterly distracted when my blood lifted into the gate and mixed with hers dripping down. The sensation hit me in the solar plexus, spreading into my heart and lungs, and from there careening through my veins to short circuit in my brain. It was violent and quick, but holy fuck it felt good. I'm sure I was making the most ridiculous expression, buckled over and leaning my forehead to Cassie's shoulder. I was sure, if people _were _watching, they would assume Cassie was jacking me off. For a moment or two I thought I actually lost it without her even touching me below the belt. And Castiella seemed to be reacting in the same manner, judging by the little mewls that graced the shell of my ear.

All too soon, she shut the gate, but I still felt her; like her blood was in my veins, like she'd opened a gate inside me and walked right in. I felt her hand close around mine, but I didn't move from my double over position against her. I heard a tap on the window we were standing before, aggressive and annoyed. Obviously the owner was getting fed up with the hoodlums scaring their customers away.

Cassie squeezed my hand, guiding me away from the store front and back toward Promise's apartment. I stumbled the first step, both light-headed and feeling weak in the knees. "What the hell did you just do to me?"

"I claimed you," Cassie answered easily. Or tried to; I could tell that her legs were a little shaky too and her fingers kept flexing around mine. That urge to take her to the mattress, yeah, that was enhanced ten fold after that little connection. I couldn't help myself, I renewed my grip on her hand and tugged her down the closest narrow alley.

Cassie laughed when I pinned her to the brownstone siding. "Cali, control yourself. You'll scandalize the rich people."

"What the hell did you do to me?" I hissed out with a little more emphasis. It was taking all my willpower not to rip her clothes off and hoist her against the wall. "Damn, I can _feel _you."

Cassie smirked and tilted her chin up to brush her lips over mine. The new sensation boiled inside at the brief contact, causing my heart to beat a little faster. "Did you know that the female Auphe are the dominant ones?" At the moment I didn't really care. I brushed my nose to her cheek, testing to see if any touch would bring about that wash of tingles. It did. Cassie's fingers tangled in my hair on one side of my head. Our bloody hands were still interlocked with mine pinning hers above her head. "That's why they were the only ones left. They sent out the males to take you out first."

"I'm not really caring about a history lesson right now," I grumbled. My body was moving of its own accord, pressing against her to have full contact. My hand slid down her side, grabbing for her ass. She smacked that wrist with her free hand.

"The females can claim a mate, several if she likes. And when she claims that mate she knows where he is at all times," Cassie teased. My lips found her throat, trailing up to her jaw as she tilted her head back to give me access. "And he knows where she is at all times."

"So sex?" I couldn't help it. I heard what she was saying. Part of it even processed. I didn't know much about the Auphe. Their culture, their habits, their means of survival; I never cared to know. The only things I needed to know were when they were near and how to kill them, but Cassie had lived among them. She knew them better than anyone else on Earth. And parts of that concept sickened me; those parts I was trying not to think about. Because right now all I wanted to think about was the feeling of her blood flowing with mine. The deep thrill of her essence burrowed into my bones. I wanted to be inside her. I wanted that connection to be realized completely.

"Well, you're certainly convincing in your argument," Cassie breathed. My hands were under her shirt, groping like a clumsy nerd getting to first base for the first time. She wasn't wearing a bra. Promise breasts were bigger than hers so she couldn't borrow that part of the wardrobe. Not that I minded. I liked her 34Bs just fine. "Caliban, we should go. Not here."

I groaned in frustration, but knew she was right. I also knew she did this –opened the gate between our blood– to give me that certainty of her presence. She was agreeing to stay for as long as she could and that was all I could ask without driving her away again. "Is it going to be like this always? Because I don't think I'm going to have much of a life outside of the bedroom if it is."

Cassie eased me back from her body by my hips. I let her; I'd had enough exhibitionism inside the Vigil and I preferred the pillow top guest bed anyway. That didn't stop either of us from partaking in another heated kiss, before Castiella replied. "I have no idea. I've never done it myself."

I adjusted her shirt over the waist of her borrowed pants, cringing at the blood smudges I got on it. I hadn't thought of her experience with 'claiming' someone. She'd done it without hesitation, efficiently. It hadn't dawned on me that she might have done it before. That she might have claimed someone else. Not an Auphe, for certain, she would never touch an Auphe and they would never give her the authority over them. She was a tool to them, not an equal. But she might have claimed another, their strength willing because it wasn't normal for someone to be okay with holding a void in space in their palm.

"Just me?" I pulled her against me again –I couldn't bear with the separation– but this time away from the building. I wanted her to say it again. And she did with a soft smile.

"Only you."

We made it back to the guest room...barely. Niko and Promise gave us a startled look as we breezed passed them and holed up in the bedroom for several hours. We skipped whatever breakfast they'd been making, but made it out for a late lunch/early dinner. Apparently, we could get used to the constant feeling of being one without _actually _being one. It was still strange. Gave me a giddy feeling every time our hands brushed, or she gave me a peck on the cheek. It was physically apparent for Niko and Promise kept watching us as if we'd been replaced by pod people.

"I'm not high," I told them. Niko gave me a skeptical look with his mouth twisted. He knew me better than to think I'd taken drugs of any kind, but my behavior was probably pretty suspect. Promise just took another dainty bite of the pasta fazool she made for us. It was delicious too; we needed to come by her place for dinner more often. She had on a knowing smirk though, just the corner of one side turned up. "I'm not. We didn't stop off and grab a few schrooms or anything."

"I guess it's a form of being high," Cassie commented as she helped herself to some more of the dish in the center of the table. One of the many things I loved about this girl, she could eat and she wasn't shy about it. "Robin used to call it my gate-rush."

I clenched my jaw and gave a sidelong glance toward my brother. "Not a good choice of words, Cas." Niko never liked my traveling. He limited me on the joy rides to the point that he put a tracker on my phone that would signal his if I skipped the few miles between point A and point B within seconds. Took all the fun out of it, but I guessed that was a good thing since my little trips later put me in a very homicidal position.

Cassie blinked up at me in confusion. "What?" She followed my subtle eye-flicker toward Niko and sighed. I watched her put her fork to her plate. "Gating is a part of you, Cal."

"At moment it could also harm him, so I would appreciate it if you didn't instigate him."

"We didn't gate," I cut in. "Cassie just...mixed our blood so I could sense where she was at all times. It made us a little hyper."

"I claimed him," Cassie reiterated. Niko and Promise still stared on in befuddlement. "As my mate," she went on as if that would explain it better. It obviously didn't by the growing suspicion in my brother's eyes. "It's an Auphe thing. Open a gate between our blood and it mixes. It connects our powers. If he gates I'll know where, if I gate he can follow to my exact location. Meaning I can't run away from him again."

"Auphe do this?" Niko asked hesitantly.

Castiella shrugged. "Well, not for those reasons, but yes. The female Auphe are dominant, as I told Cal. They choose their mates and those mates are then indentured to that female." She nudged her shoulder to mine, producing that electric tingle that made me want to collapse into her. I could understand how that sensation would make even a male Auphe a little submissive. "It also means that no other female can touch you."

I lifted my eyebrows at that. Sweet, no more Auphe breeding stud nightmares for me. "Thank you for that."

"You're on your own with the males though. Sometimes they kill a female's mates to take their place." She went back to eating a few forkfuls then snorted at her own thoughts before sharing. "Of course I doubt any of the males will be waiting in line to mate with a half peri unless they come up with another dastardly plan to reclaim the world."

"And that won't attract the Auphe...you claiming him?" Niko questioned. His reservation in this was apparent, but when Cassie shook her head easily he relaxed and even smiled a little. "Then I see no harm in this particular type of 'gate-rush'."

"You need to stop getting nervous every time your brother is in a good mood," Cassie teased with a wink. "He's sleeping with the hottest female Auphe in the world he's bound to be cheerful."

I snickered wanting very much to kiss her in that moment, but my urges were interrupted when the huge picture windows over Promise's balcony exploded inward. Glass and feather scattered all over Promise's living room. Niko was over the dining room table in a second. Promise slipping back with eyes on whatever had just joined us for lunch and away from the afternoon sun that now streamed into her apartment. I, myself, knocked my chair over I got up so abruptly and reached for Cassie. Not sure why. She was probably more skilled than I was, but I guessed part of me really just wanted to make sure she didn't jump into the fray for me.

Standing on the remains of Promise's glass coffee table was the tall, muscular form of Ishiah's younger brother. The only bastard that managed to dodge and weave out of Casitella's massive peri-shredding gate. Joel spread his wings, casting fiery golden eyes upon us. He wasn't alone. The balcony was soon crowded with peris. Some crouching on the railing, some being presumptuous enough to waltz right into the apartment.

"Give us the Harbinger and you won't be harmed," Joel declared. His voice was deeper than I expected, but then again last I heard it he was screaming in agony and rage as I drove a few bullets in him after he'd just watched his family be cut to pieces. I cursed the fact that we made Robin leave. He might have been able to tell us which peri clan we were dealing with here and how to get them out of the damned apartment without destroying it.

I reached for my holster and realized with dread I hadn't put it back on after Cassie and my last roll in the sheets. Damn it, I needed to be more careful; the peris weren't the only ones after us right now and they certainly weren't the only ones that could drop in unannounced.

"I'll go," Casitella agreed and stepped forward. I grabbed for her arm, squeezing to the point of bruising her should she have been a normal girl. She panned her gaze toward me. "It's fine, Cali. I'll be fine."

"You're not leaving me," I snarled. If this was going to be a continuous argument, I was already sick of it.

"No, I'm not, but this is a very nice apartment and I don't want them breaking anymore of the windows," Cassie hissed back with emphasis on the last part. I glanced back toward Promise who was holding a crossbow aloft, but also taking cover behind the lip of the hallway. It was not a good time of day for a vampire to fight in the open. Niko was positioned in front of her. Halfway between her and me; he always spread himself too thin. "You can find me," Cassie added and peeled my hand from her arm. She squeezed my fingers before letting go.

"You want me dead too right?" I snapped at Joel. His gold eyes shifted to one of the peri standing next to him, a nondescript blond with broad shoulders and dark eyebrows. Great a second cousin. "Hey! You want me too right? So I'm coming with her."

At Joel's nod, which I thought was him agreeing to my plan, the cousin whipped out a gun and let loose a bullet before I even registered what it was. There were several shouts as I dropped to the ground and I knew the war was on, but I couldn't move. I stared on, half propped by the table leg my skull had cracked against in my fall. Niko and Cassie dove at them, both armed and creating body count in a fraction of a second; bet the peris didn't expect that.

"Cal," Promise whispered behind me in concern. Her pale hand clasped over the bullet hole in my chest and she dragged me back from the fight and the sunlight. I could see it blistering her exposed arm that was slung around my chest. My head lolled in her lap and I immediately tried to lift it to see my brother and girlfriend. I pleaded for Promise to help them, but came out as a gurgle. Well, that wasn't good. Neither was me coughing up blood. "Stay still," Promise commanded, but I was having trouble breathing now and having trouble not choking. Fuck, those bastards got a lung. Why was it always me getting shot? And a peri with a gun? What the fuck was up with that?

"Get him out!" I heard Castiella scream, forceful and pissed off. A moment later a black blanket sailed over my head, wrapping both me and Promise up in darkness. Weightlessness hit me as Promise –Promise!– picked me up. Niko's hands were on me too, stabilizing my frame in Promise's shorter arms. I grabbed for the front of Niko's shirt, trying to jerk my way back onto the floor.

"I'm not leaving her!" Yeah, well it came out as a wheeze and a hack, but Niko understood. He couldn't even see my face from under the blanket.

"You need help, Cal. I'm not losing you again," he said it with quiet desperation. My stomach tumbled with rocks. My head was foggy now. The blanket shifted so I could see behind me even when my head became too heavy to hold up anymore. Cassie was still fighting, still slicing and dicing with her claws and breaking necks with her thighs. Fuck, my girlfriend was hot when she fought. And beautiful too.

The apartment door slammed shut behind us and I couldn't see her anymore. I didn't have the energy to stop us. They were taking me away from her. How cruel. I thought they liked her, but no...they did like her. Bros before hoes. Niko didn't want to lose me again. Like he had with Darkling. Like he almost did with Suloyak and Delilah's pack. Like he kinda did with Cherish and that creepy bastard she manipulated into walking off a tall building. Like...when I was taken to Tumulus. "Nik."

"Here," Niko assured me. I wanted to tell him to go back. Shove me in a cab with the address to Professor Nushi's place and go back to help her, but I couldn't. I couldn't even take in the breath needed to form more than his nickname. He took me from Promise's arms as she slipped into a cab under the cover of the blanket. My feet clipped the pavement. When did we get outside?

"What the fuck?"

"Don't ask," Niko snarled at the cab driver. He rattled off Nushi's address, holding my Glock in his hand. I guess a gun was a little more intimidating than a throwing knife in New York. My brother was deadly accurate with both, so the cabby made the right decision in listening to him. Wait. I didn't want him to listen. I didn't want him to go. Cassie.

I tried to crawl over Niko's lap, I was strewn across both him and Promise, probably kicking and kneeing tender places on both of them. They held me fast in place and the cab jerked into motion. I could feel her. I could feel the distance between us greatening. I could hear Niko on the phone. He was calling Robin. Robin could help Cassie. Ishiah could go and kick his douchebag brother's ass. Yeah...and Cassie, she'd be fine... I'd see her when I woke up. She promised. Unless this counted as putting me in direct danger.

Well, shit.


	20. Chapter 20 Robin

**Chapter Twenty**

**ROBIN**

Over the great and many years of my existence I'd seen many a war zone and many a slaughter. It didn't by any means desensitize me from the blood shed I came across when I slammed my shoulder into Promise's half open door and barged into her apartment. Ishiah was a step behind me, but pulled to a stop with me in shock.

The balcony windows were shattered, glass glittering in the afternoon sun along the exquisite oriental rug that nearly touched the walls of Promise's living room. Some of those shards were dipped in blood, shimmering like a stained glass window in a cathedral. The feathers laced with gold and silver made the picture both that much more beautiful and horrific. I counted seven bodies in tact and slashed down by Niko's blade and another thirteen strewn about in pieces on furniture and the remains thereof. Castiella's claws had been out and both her and Niko's rage high.

Cal must have been hurt substantially for such a massacre.

I took hesitant steps through the apartment. Eyes following the splatter patterns on the walls and pools of limbs and blood on the floor to determine if any of it was my friends'. Niko hadn't mentioned he'd been hurt in the brief phone conversation, just Caliban, but then he wouldn't divulge that to me unless the attack was over and his brother was safe. Only then would he seek medical help. I rested assured that they were heading directly to the healer professor on Niko's college campus. If any of them were hurt, Nushi would be able to save them. He saved me after all when Seraglio's family shot me in vengeance for past indiscretions I still regretted to this day.

My gaze panned to the side when Ishiah slipped by me. I brushed my fingers over the fabric of his shirt, but doubted it comforted much. "Ish?"

"It's the Cheris clan," Ishiah murmured. "Accompanied by a few from the Androma." He scanned the area and shook his head. "Joel escaped again. The coward."

I lifted my brow; apparently Ishiah was no longer feeling remorse for his fallen kin. Not that I blamed him, even I would have a thing or two to say to Castiella if she started up on an unmerited peri killing spree. Unmerited being the key phrase there. "Cassie's not here."

"I noticed."

I sighed and ran my fingers over his broad shoulder. "I lost her again." It rolled in my stomach like those disgusting meals Caliban partook in at the unhygienic dive diners. I should have known; I half expected it. Castiella was too hyper conscious of the threat she caused to others. Didn't see that it made little difference if she was with us or not. Danger stalked us like a Salome prowled after the Pomeranian next door when she got out: relentless and often successful. If she wasn't present the danger still found us and now that the Auphe knew Caliban lived the threat wasn't any less than it would be with her at our side. If anything, her gone gave less protection to our little half Auphe. Why didn't she see that?

I raked a hand through my hair and spun from the carnage. "I'll call Niko."

Ishiah caught me around the waist, before I could leave. "Check your apartment. Maybe she returned to get her belongings." I shook my head. She wouldn't bother. Tumulus didn't really support the use of our luxuries. She would leave it all behind. Every cute dress and accessory I bought her. She would leave it and us behind for the greater good. Or at least the greater good in her head.

"Then go check on Cal," Ishiah told me. His lips brushed my temple to comfort, but I couldn't feel much of anything at the moment. "I'll clean up here." I knew I should help him. He just lost even more of his family, but part of me just didn't care. I stared at him for a long moment contemplating all the times he'd tried to save me from myself. Granted it was never garnered and absolutely never heeded, but Ishiah had dutifully tried all the same. And here he was, standing among the limbs of his fallen brothers and sisters and cousins, putting up that feigned look of calm on his sharply featured face, and I was ready to dart out and abandon him. I was supposed to stay, right? That was what beings in a monogamous relationship did. Remain with those they loved, even if the situation was one Caliban would categorize as 'shitstain messy'.

I shook my head for a third time. Even if he didn't show it, my lover needed support right now and in the moment, I was the only one to give it. I turned his face toward me and kissed him, languid and brief but it got the hardness to dissipate from his eyes a little. Even as my fingers drifted over the scar left by his father, whom I killed.

"I'll call Niko," I repeated. "Then I'll help you with this." I cursed the fact that Caliban had outwore our use of the Vigil, because this would have been the perfect job for those bastards. I scanned the walls before flipping my cellphone open, wishing Cassie were a cleaner killer as well. Must have been an Auphe thing. "Niko," I answered when the line picked up.

"Promise," her lilting voice corrected me. _Gamato_, Cal must have been a mess if Promise was answering his phone. I could just see that perfectly lean form bent over his incapacitated brother, holding his hand maybe. Damn all the gods of Greece, should Cal die on us.

"Cal?" Might as well keep with the name game.

"He's stable. The bullet punctured his lung, but just stopped." She said it slowly and with soft confusion.

"Meaning the bullet's still in him?"

"No, it's gone. But there's no exit wound. Professor Nushi said the wound is strange. It tunnels wider at the entrance. As if something were wrapped around the head of the bullet, forced to stretch. He compared it to the bullet hitting the apex of a taut sling shot, flinging back just as it pierced to his lung." Promise and I didn't talk much, but I would admit even in her bewilderment she chose her words carefully. Every pause was consideration.

I rolled my shoulders, little pinpricks of phantom pain reminding me with great detail what a wound as she described felt like. I woke up to that the first morning in the Vigil's 'care'. A tunneled wound slightly larger than the gage of the bullet shot, larger only because the 'slingshot' tore part of your flesh and yanked it into space with the lethal projectile. When that overhang came down in the corridor and the gunners greeted us on the other side, Cassie had created a gate. One to take us back to the room and one to shield us. Some of the bullets got through, many of them, but without her gate I would have been dead. Cassie would have been dead. It was the same with Cal most likely.

"It wasn't a slingshot it was a gate. Cassie must have gated the bullet. She can do it a little more efficiently if given time, but spur of the moment...it will still harm and the gate will cause that tunneling." I also distinctly remembered the firing squad in Belize being ripped to shreds by their own bullets from a gate shielding in the same way, only with less renting funnels. She had more time then and a wicked smirk on her face.

"The trajectory path was his spine," Promise went on in that quiet whisper between bass and treble that I couldn't catch when I was in Ishiah's bathroom and they were concerned about my unflappable state of mind. "The professor said it could have ricochet into his heart."

"Atlas' overstated salience. Did he say that in front of Niko?"

"Nnn, unfortunately," Promise murmured, following my train of though. Niko would not let Caliban out of his sight now. Not for a few months at least. And he would probably be glad to know Castiella wasn't sticking around to cause Cal any more pain. "We're moving him to a hotel. I'll message you the address."

"I'll be by later. Your apartment is in a bit of a disarray. You might want to avoid walking through your living room in bare feet until you get some cleaners out."

"And Casitella?"

"Not here," I replied shortly. Thankfully, Promise respected my tone as implication that I didn't want to divulge any more than that. She hummed an affirmative and the line cut out. I slid the phone closed and pressed it to my forehead for a moment. I took in a deep breath, cringing when the majority of the scent my nostrils picked up was blood. I forced my way through my reserve –blood was so difficult to get out of fabric and bagging body parts made it almost impossible not to stain– and turned back to the disaster before me.

Ishiah was kneeling before one of the fallen peri, a twisted carcass with arms and legs akimbo and face gazing upward, touching his fingers to the eyelids and pressing them closed. My jaw clenched so tightly it hurt to my temples. I couldn't let him do this. It was like forcing a child that just watched his parents be murdered before him by a hacksaw to clean up the blood and urine. I thumbed my phone open again and promptly scrolled through to find Samuel's number. He was probably the last person I should be calling, giving him Promise's address no less, but I, I could not stress this enough, didn't care.

"Samuel, greetings," I called out when he picked up. Obviously he didn't have my number under his caller id. "I have a favor to ask."

"Robin?" He sounded utterly floored; honestly, what sane person would phone a member of an organization that recently imprisoned him? One that felt very confident that they couldn't do shit about it.

"I need a little clean up at Promise's apartment, if you would be so kind."

Samuel's voice dropped a few octaves and I could hear the muffled rub of his hand cupping the receiver. "What is the _matter_ with you?"

"Cleaning job. Promise's place. I'm sure you and the men in black already know where that is." They did clean up a disaster or two here previously during the whole Seamus/Cherish fiasco a few years back.

"I can't help you, Robin." He said it through clenched teeth; perhaps he was a little vexed about the destruction to his work place. "Clean up your own messes."

"You see I would, but it's so much more convenient to make you do it."

"You killed five of our men in the last attack, Goodfellow."

I grunted in consideration. "Five, hm, not to bad for actively trying not to kill with localized explosives. What does that place the total at? Ten, fifteen?"

"I am not helping you, Goodfellow."

"Your affronted tone is highly amusing considering that it's a bit hypocritical of you to condemn me for merely following your Vigil motto. Survival by mean of murder. Something like that yes? And you _are _going to come to Promise's apartment and you will clean up our mess, because let me tell you having every hairy, clawed and blood-driven creature learn that you have their second cousin or mother behind lock and key, strapped to a bed in a strait jacket, or pumped full of drug and venom will not be a favorable thing. The _paien_ of New York City will not be as tolerant of your presence as they have been so far."

Samuel sighed on the other end. "You think blackmailing the Vigil will help your situation at all?"

"Funny, my situation hasn't changed one bit. And I prefer to think of this as a mutual contract." I leaned back to view Ishiah from the foyer. He'd started collecting the victims of Cassie's latest attempt at freedom, solemn and silent as he worked. "Besides, how wise did your superiors think it to anger the most powerful creature I've ever known. And I know an unfathomable amount. The Harbinger will kill you if you pursue Caliban in any lifetime preceding. If you wish to keep your lives I suggest you endeavor to return to a level playing ground with myself and Caliban, otherwise you might end up like the peris that just made another attempt on Cal's life."

Another sigh from Samuel, but no verbal response. I grinned. "So I expect you here in thirty or less, else I spread news of your little non-consensual ant farm laboratory like it is the next fashion trend on the streets of LA."

Samuel hung up without confirming, but if he didn't show there would be more than just words crossing paths. Convincing Ishiah to leave was a whole other animal. He glanced up when I reentered the room, a knowing expression on his face and a slight glare behind those blue gray eyes. "Ishiah, please—"

He held up a hand, already speckled with semi-dried blood. "They are my family. Homicidal and misguided as they may have been, I don't want them becoming the Vigil's next experiment."

"I highly doubt they're planning on stitching them back together into a peri Frankenstein monster." I grumbled, but knew he could hear the joke. By the look on his serious face, it was still too soon for it. "Ishiah, we can not be here when they come. _I_ can not be here when they come. They'll try they take your toy away again and honestly those cotton scrubs left rashes on my delicate skin."

"Then leave," Ishiah answered. He rose from his crouched position over his brethren and wiped his palms on his slacks. I straightened as he came closer, fearing his temper a little in his delicate state. He grabbed me by the back of my neck, knocking his wider forehead to mine. I could feel the creases in the skin there when he frowned. "Just as I asked. Go see to Caliban. Be unseen here, but I can't leave. The Vigil will not harm me as I have done nothing to anger them."

I scoffed. "Except aid a few fugitives."

"Joel is alive. Therefore their contract to spare me holds true," Ishiah brushed his lips to mine again to comfort when he should be comforted. "I need to stay here. See that they don't desecrate these remains. Please, will you obey me this once?"

I sighed, cupped his jaw and kissed him. Kissed him to remind him what he still had. He smirked as if he knew my intention and dotted one last peck to my temple, before I surrendered and ducked out of the apartment via the half bent fire escape. I loped down the alley to an adjacent street, not wanting to be seen if the Vigil were already en route. I hailed a taxi, heading for the hotel since that was the only destination that made sense at the moment. Cassie wouldn't bother to retrieve material things, but she would, however, sneak a last glance at the loved ones she was leaving behind. Like a shadow as the sun set on a moonless night, she would loom close, unseen unless looked for. And Niko certainly wouldn't be paying attention to benevolent presences, just malevolent.

The hotel was a little more upper crust than the Leandros boys were prone to renting, but I supposed that was to hide their movements further. The Vigil wouldn't expect them to shell out the cash for a hotel that had gilded crown molding in the lobby. I doubt the peris would see it coming either. I waved briefly to the darling blond behind the counter; judging by her face lighting up upon seeing me, I'd no doubt _met_ her before. I avoided speaking with her much to her chagrin. No need to increase her disappointment in life, knowing that she could never experience the grand pleasures she encountered with me again. I knew the Grand well enough that when Promise gave me the room number I had to reread the text in doubt. Unless the hotel renovated and renumbered their rooms, they were in one of the penthouse suites.

I felt a little proud of them as I waited for the elevator to open on the top floor. I rapt on the door to 1803 and waited, again, now impatiently for the door to swing inward. Promise tilted her head to see behind me, crossbow half hidden behind her thigh. Her lavender eyes flickered to meet mine in question. "You're apartment will be clean, I assure you."

"And obviously not cleaned by you, which does assure me." She paused, a frown creasing the sides of her dainty mouth. "You didn't leave Ishiah there?"

"He made me, but he won't be alone. He can also take care of himself." The uptight vampire gave me a scolding look, but didn't lecture as she opened the door wider and let me in. I gave a low whistle and smirked at Niko who was half crouch half sitting on the couch in the common room. The suites of the Grand held true to the hotel's name. Plush leather couches, a huge flat screen, cherry wood tables and chairs in a small dining area and a full kitchen tucked away next to the door. If I remembered right, the bathroom in the master bedroom was exquisite and nearly the size of a four seating hot tub. Even the secondary room and bath were of better taste and size than anything Caliban or Niko had lived in. Honestly this suite was probably larger than their entire apartment.

"Nice new residence. I'm impressed."

"It's temporary," Niko muttered. A katana was resting, sheathed, over his thighs which twitch every so often in nervousness. The tranquil warrior was rattled.

"How's Cal?" I asked. I stood before him instead of sitting. The plucky pan was just as rattled.

"Resting. Professor Nushi said he should be fine in the morning. Perhaps not as energetic, but sufficiently alert."

"I'm assuming those are Nushi's words, because I would not describe Caliban as energetic on a good day." I'd been hoping the affectionate barb would tease a smile out of Niko, but his olive-toned features remained still as the silence. "Cassie's gone...I'm sure you'll be glad to know she won't be getting Cal killed anytime soon in future."

That obtained an emotion, but not the one I was expecting. Niko glared at me, gray eyes sharp and upturned in a deadly manner. "I don't wish that. She's good for Cal, despite the dangers, she's making him happy. And she's in there with him."

I glanced at the master bedroom where Niko motioned, shock riding through my system. Hope quickly followed suit. She came back? She actually tracked Caliban down and let herself be seen by Niko and Promise? I wasn't sure what that meant entirely, but it was a break from the pattern and that thrilled me. I didn't respond to Niko's confession that I was wrong and he wanted Cassie to stay as much as I did, but slipped passed the kitchen into the bedroom without another word.

It was dark, even though the sun had yet to set outside. The black out curtains were drawn and Cassie's sleek form was curved over as she sat on the bed beside Cal's unconscious body. There were no lights on. Just the glow of the alarm clock and the little red dot of the fire alarm. I proceeded in regardless to the intimate setting, watching Cassie eye me as I did.

"Are you staying?" I whispered, both because the concept left me breathless and because I didn't want to wake Caliban. He wasn't snoring per se, but his breathing was a bit labored in sleep. Not that one could expect it to be perfect after one of his lungs was deflated.

Cassie dipped her head, so her deep blond locks slipped over her shoulders and hid her face from me. "No."

My wishful excitement curdled and dropped to my stomach at that single remorseful word. "Cas—"

"Nothing you will say will change my mind," Cassie interrupted. "Ever since I kissed him his life has been in danger."

"His life has been in danger since the day he was conceived."

"The peris targeted him to get to me."

"And the Auphe target Niko to get to Cal, but you don't see Cal ditching his brother, do you?"

"It's crossed his mind." My brow knitted at that confession. Had it? Caliban had considered running away from his brother? I supposed it wasn't a ludicrous thought, but I never would have guessed. The brothers seemed so deeply bonded than nothing would separate them. If things hadn't taken a turn for the personal hells of Hades, I would have expected Cassie to move in with the brothers, Promise too eventually...if she and Niko lasted that long. I imagined them living in row homes right next to one another if not in the same brownstone with rooms at opposite ends of the hall. Nothing could part to Leandros brothers.

"Crossed it," I murmured. "Note how he never acted upon it."

Cassie bent over Caliban, pressing a soft kiss to his lips and whispering something I couldn't make out in his ear. She rose from the bed and turned to face me. She had that pig-headed look on her cherub face. "I'm going to miss you."

"Wow," I mocked, tone dripping with rancor and strain I couldn't hide. "Saying goodbye to my face. This is a new kind of abandonment."

Her lashes were already wet. I could see them catch the light of the alarm clock when she looked away, glistening. "Robbie, please don't. I have no other choice."

"Like hell you don't," I hissed and stepped up in front of her. I grabbed her shoulders and shook her once, roughly. "Cal wants you here. I want you here. Niko wants you here. We know the danger, we know the trouble, and we don't care. You think you'll kill him if you stay, but Cas, I'm telling you, leaving him will hurt so much more than any death you could imagine."

The door cracked open, spilling light onto the carpet. Cassie retreated from it like it would burn, shaking me off and taking to the darkness. Niko's shadow hung in the doorway, waiting, assessing the situation before he interrupted. Cassie spared him a glance, then fixed her eyes on me. "I'm sorry."

"No, Cas—" I reached for her, tried to catch her arm again, but it faded in a foggy haze and, with a final step back from me, she disappeared with a diminishing gray light. "Damn it."

With a startled breath, Cal twitched on the bed. "Gate..." He was still unconscious, but not enough to dismiss the sensation that gave him nightmares since he was a teen. Niko hastened to the side of the bed, collecting one of Caliban's hands in his and squeezing it. "Gate."

"It's okay, Cal. It was just Cassie."

"Cas...where?" His eyes peeled open for a moment, then fluttered closed again. Nushi must have drugged him; he would never stay asleep knowing a gate had just been opened near him, especially with the Auphe back in town. I ignored them for a few moments, staring at the space my best friend used to occupy and cursing her for taking advantage of the fact that the only one who could stop her from using that exit strategy was bed ridden and high.

Casitella was gone. No mistaking it. No false hope. Gone.

Tears slipped down my face and I let them. Damn any being who saw fault in my anguish, because they didn't have to wake up every day wondering if their best friend was currently being gutted by the claws of her psychotic relatives. They didn't have to catch their breath every time they caught scent of a Hawthorn bush. And they didn't have to see the mirth in their friend's eyes die instantly the moment he knew his love was gone. I closed my eyes.

Better to have loved and lost then to never have loved at all? Somehow I doubted the wisdom of those flowery words.


	21. Epilogue Cal

**Epilogue**

**CAL**

I slammed the beer down in front of the bulldog of a werewolf in front of me. His wet eyes narrowed in the creases over his cheekbones, but he took it and dropped his change on the counter as tip. Funny how when I was near psychotic grumpy I got better tips than an average day. I snatched up the bills and shoved them in my jean pocket; fuck, the peris if they thought we were splitting this shit at the end of the night. That's right, Cal Leandros was back in full Auphe swing, bitches.

Samyael eyed me sidelong down the other end of the bar, but like the rest of them avoided any direct contact with me be it physical or verbal. At this point physical would probably get them a gun barrel in their face. It didn't matter that Ishiah's non-clan employees had nothing to do with the attack on us. It didn't matter that they probably didn't care one way or another if Cassie had remained with me. They were peris and at the moment I hated them all.

When I woke in the ridiculous hotel Niko had shelled bank out for, the first words out of my mouth after I opened my eyes and saw him standing over me were, "Where's Cassie?" Niko didn't have an answer and –for once– neither did Robin. It must have been the drugs or the pain that had me cursing like a drunk sailor and almost in tears. I didn't even remember much of it. But I remembered Robin hugging me, hand clutching at the back of my head reassuringly and me letting him.

Cassie was gone. The thought still left me torn between screaming and punching in a wall. She said she'd stay, she promised. Granted she only promised to stay until I got hurt because of her and technically I did get shot by peri dicks that were after her, but... Yeah, okay, there was no explaining away that one, but it still stung.

I tensed when I felt a presence directly behind me, but didn't react quickly enough before a large hand clamped down on the back of my neck, squeezing uncomfortably then shoving forward so I had to strain my muscles in order to not slam my head into the bar. I didn't bother looking over my shoulder; I could recognize Ishiah's scent now. I guessed Castiella expanded that ability with her peri lineage. "I would appreciate a little less sass."

"Fuck off," I growled. I stared at the grain of the lacquered bar, jaw tense and grinding. Yeah, he was my boss. Yeah, he was the lover of my only non-relative friend. And because of this I trusted he wouldn't a.) kill me for the insult and b.) fire me for being an absolute douchebag. He would, however, snag me up by my longish black hair and wrench me back toward the offices down the hall. I hissed out at the pain along my scalp and elbowed Ishiah in the stomach to get him to let go. He didn't.

My shoulder met the door to his office painfully, before he reached around me to turn the knob and deposit me on his floor. Luckily, my reflexes had me stumble, head down, but remain on my feet. I spun around just as Niko slammed his palm to Ishiah's office door before he closed it on my brother's Rom nose. Nik gave Ishiah a stern warning look with a tilt of his head. I could tell he wasn't happy; was probably out of his corner stall the second Ishiah grabbed my neck at the bar. He'd been my shadow day and night since I was shot, it didn't matter than Nushi fixed me up so all that remained was another scar on my chest (and on the interior, scar tissue on my lung). His little brother almost died _again_. I was going to give Nik a heart attack one of these days with the stress I put him through.

"Deal with it," Ishiah snapped at him without introduction or explanation. He reached for Niko's arm, but my brother twisted it out of the grasp before it even touched his sleeve. Ishiah decided to point at the small leather couch across from the writing desk in the center. The room itself was a sparse as the rest of the peri's tastes and dimly lit. "Either you sit here and listen to this or you leave."

Niko still had his hand to the door and wasn't relenting. "Leave him alone."

"He's not a child. He needs to stop acting like one."

I rolled my eyes. "I'm right here, you assholes."

Ishiah turned to me, blue-gray eyes sharp, but at least they weren't flashing gold. "We're all hurting, Caliban. It's a lost to all of us, but you have to move on. And you have to stop scaring off my customers!"

"You're the one that hired a half Auphe," I grumbled.

"And I can just as easily fire him," Ishiah challenged. He stared me and my petulant glower down for a few moments, then his broad shoulders dropped and sighed. "Just go home."

"I don't want to," I admitted. Home was currently an overly gaudy hotel room that made me have horrible flashbacks to when Darkling high-jacked my body and murdered a werewolf in a luxury suite bathroom. Not that I told anyone about that...except for Cassie. Niko, also, didn't appreciate the fact that my favorite hobby at the moment was slouching on the couch in front of the flat screen in the dark with the curtains drawn. 'Home' left me nothing to do. 'Home' made me think about her.

"Then stop sulking and do your job," Ishiah lectured. He huffed out another sigh and turned from the room, walking around Niko. I was surprised he didn't force me out. Maybe he did like me despite myself. "You aren't the only one who lost something through all this."

With that he left, then I left before Niko could come up with anything great and inspiring to say following after my boss. I worked through the night, stayed until closing. It made me a little nostalgic for the days when I closed up the bar for Meredith, before the Auphe slaughtered her that was. Except I wasn't alone these days. Niko waited with his books in the dim half-light of the bar. Ishiah fiddled around with papers in his office with Robin, who'd shown up half way through my shift, chatting away –I could hear them from behind the bar, but didn't bother to decipher the words. I just counted my blessings they weren't gratuitous moans. Even Samyael lingered, putting great effort into menial tasks that usually took me minutes to finish. All eyes on me.

I gave up when I finished putting the glasses away and walked out without a word. Niko would follow. Robin would stalk me tomorrow with some lame excuse and an embellished adventure or two for me not to listen to. And I would go to work when the sun set. Another day, just like the last and the one before that. Like nothing had changed.

But in the silence of my hotel room, sounds of Niko's uneven slumber in the next bed over, I could feel her. If I stilled my mind, I could hear her heart beating. Sometimes thundering in the quick step of the chase or the hunt and sometimes a tremble so faint I feared it would sputter to a stop. I could feel her, but I could touch her and that pissed me off.

I contemplated traveling to her more than once as the days turned into weeks and the weeks into months. Promised myself I could endure Tumulus long enough to knock her out and drag her back to me, but the truth was...the kick was I was scared. Scared I wouldn't come back. Scared I couldn't find her or couldn't convince her and then I'd be lost. Lost in that hell with those bastards on my heels. And that's what kept me there, lying in my bed night after night. From a hotel room pillow top to the springy mattress from our old apartment that we shipped to our new one, just staring at the exposed ceiling.

I could still hear Niko in the next room. The partitioned walls of our new digs not reaching the rafters of the converted warehouse. I could still hear his restless sleep, knew when he came to my door to listen and make sure I was still there. I wouldn't leave him, but that didn't stop me from wishing for it all to go away. Wishing for that sensation of her blood in mine to dissipate and fade like they claimed old wounds did. Wishing to forget everything that was Castiella. And why couldn't it be that simple? Just to forget everything.

Idle thoughts could be dangerous in that way.

"Cal?" Niko knocked softly on my door, one evening as empty as any other. He eased the door open and peered in at me, sprawled out on my bed unmoving other than to continue tossing my throwing knives at the wall across my bed. He didn't even scold me for defacing our new home. "Promise is here. She might have a job for us," and when I didn't reply. "Get your ass out of bed now. If we take this one it could be extremely dangerous and you need to pay attention."

"What's the monster of the week this time?"

"Nepenthe. They seem to be draining the local high seats to various preternatural races."

"Never heard of them."

There was a tense pause, making me look over at my brother. His features were taut, long nose flaring just the slightest bit. I sat up on my bed. "Then get up and get to the kitchen. The last thing we need his you getting bit by one."

I rolled my eyes, but reluctantly got up. Right now the last thing I needed was Niko kicking my ass. "Fine. How much are they paying?"

Niko sighed and walked away. Oh well. I was going to have to help whether I wanted to or not, because Nik would probably still take the job and I wasn't about to let him run off on his own to fight something that might bite his head off. The distraction might be cathartic anyway. Another adventure for the Leandros brothers.


End file.
